Betwixt
by Mayclore
Summary: The Pines become acquainted with mysterious identical twins that are new to town. After one of Dipper's tour ideas nearly gets them killed, they uncover Gravity Falls' greatest tragedy - an event that will drag all of them toward their own sets of terrible secrets, some of which may put the world at large in danger. Updates every Friday.
1. There's a Goat, Too

Mabel had taken it upon herself to head into town to buy some more knitting supplies, and despite the awful, stuffy air was enjoying the trip. The official town section of Gravity Falls was bustling with people doing one thing or another. Despite the decidedly not-sweater weather, she gave everyone – literally _everyone – _some sort of smile or wave or two-minute diatribe about how lovely their shoes or hair or pants or something looked. This drew her journey out quite a bit; by the time she'd actually gotten to the store and come out, her morning jaunt was turning in an afternoon one.

And she needed a break. Fortunately there were a few benches nearby, so she picked an empty one and plopped down on it to catch her breath. "Phew. It's hotter than a..." It was so hot her brain couldn't formulate an analogy. "...really hot thing. Wow. Nice job, me." She fanned herself with a hand and watched the people travel by.

Not all of them walked past, however. Someone tall and dressed even more warmly came to a halt and sat on the other end of the bench. It was impossible to tell much about them; the hood of their gray hoodie was up, and they had on baggy jeans that further concealed their form. This, of course, didn't stop Mabel from being friendly.

"Hi! Dude and/or dudette, you gotta be roasting," she greeted brightly.

Whoever it was didn't look over, but they did reply. "It's not too bad." Female voice. Very even and measured. Sort of gravely, too.

"Girrrrrrrrl please. I feel like some roasted French food I can't even say and I'm not wearing pants! What's the dealio? Why you in there?"

"I... feel a bit out of place, honestly."

"What?" That triggered a serious eye bulge. "Why for?"

"I'm..." Pregnant pause. "...new."

Mabel sucked in a gallon of air with her gasp. "Oh my gosh. Did you just move in?! You need a tour guide! I volunteer!"

Totally caught off guard, all the stranger could do now was look over and stammer "Wh-what?" Her face was somewhat visible, but detail was hard to make out.

"Seriously! You need a buddy? I gotcha back. My bro-bro and I know this town like the back of our hands."

"But I don't even know your name."

"Mabel!" She reached out a hand, expecting a shake, and after a few seconds got one. "Dang, you got some grip."

"So I've been told." The stranger turned away and looked down the street. "The air feels strange."

She also looked that way. "Oh yeah, it's the lake. Humidity and something or whatever. All I know is I have to use like a bottle of conditioner every night to stop the frizz from harshing my do."

The stranger's shoulders dipped a bit. "Your... right. Mabel? That's an interesting name."

She had to talk through a persistent giggle. "Yeah! That's my mom's middle name. Aunt Maud says she gave it to me like my dad gave his middle name to my bro."

Abruptly, the stranger perked up. "Maud? I know a Maud."

"Neato! See, we already got something in common." Mabel wasn't going to let the tenuous nature of the connection stop her. "So like, where ya from?"

There was some hesitance in her reply. "Oh, far away."

She tilted her head. "Like where? Iowa? Iowa is pretty far. And full of corn. So I hear, anyway."

"I... yes. Iowa."

"Huh. I always thought people from Iowa had weird accents." Her finger traced a happy path on her skirt. "I think I'm thinking of Wisconsin? Aw, I'm no good at geography. Dipper's the smart one. He's my bro. You got any bros?"

"No, but I have a sister." The stranger finally dropped her hood. She had a head of the blackest hair Mabel had ever seen, styled short and slicked against her head, with eyes of an equally intense blue. A frown came and went as she watched the passersby. "She's going to be coming soon, but I came first to make sure everything was ready."

"Ooo, no wonder you look mopey. I don't like it when I get separated from Dipper. Know exactly how you're feelin' up there." This was emphasized with a pat on the shoulder – which Mabel had to raise up somewhat to deliver. "Soooooo, what's _your_ name?"

The stranger tilted her head. "My name is..." Again, she hesitated slightly. "Winnie."

Mabel's face went blank, though it still bore a smile. "The Pooh?" Silence. "Pff, I'm kiddin'. Nice to meet you!"

"Likewise." At last, she smiled too. "You remind me of a friend back home."

"Oh?" For a moment, Mabel fussed with her rainbow-colored sweater. "I've never heard _that_ before. Dipstick always calls me 'hopelessly unique'."

"You could say the same about my friend." Winnie tilted her gaze up at the cloudy sky. "It is rather humid here, isn't it?"

"Heck yeah. How is your hair staying so flat? I'm super jelly." She squinted at the tall girl's slicked-down locks. "Hair gel?"

"Oh, yes. I like to keep it completely out of my eyes." A few moments quietly passed by before Mabel tugged at her sleeve. "Hmm?"

"Listen." A serious expression was on her face – not that it made her look any less cheerful. "You're gonna hear some weird stuff about this town. I'm talking gnome-level weirdness. If anything happens to you that you're just like 'nobody's gonna believe this', talk to me and my brother. We'll believe you."

Winnie's face dropped with confusion. "If you say so?"

"Seriously!" There was a bus approaching from down the street which Mabel pointed out. "That'll take you to a place called the Mystery Shack. If something dumb happens, just drop by." They watched it come to a halt at a bus stop. "Wait. I'm supposed to be on that. Frack! Hey! Wait!" She snatched her shopping bag off the sidewalk and started running. "Sorry gotta go nice to meet you again bye oh balls hey mister bus driver waaaaaait!"

"Hmm." Winnie blinked and watched her until she got on the bus. After it turned onto a side street and disappeared, she rose and patted at her hair. "I don't think the humidity is why the air feels strange," she muttered lowly.

* * *

Dipper found himself humming a little tune as he swept the shop. He was the only person in the building; Wendy hadn't arrived yet for some reason, and Stan and Soos were outside doing something to or around or near the bottomless pit. He really hadn't paid any attention to their conversation.

Just as he was about to get to the register, the door flew open with Mabel behind it. She let out a high-pitched "Dipper!" at maximum volume, which made him shriek, throw the broom, and fall over in a terrified heap. "Oh, there you are."

It took him some time to pull himself up. "M-Mabel! How did you know I was even in here?!"

"I didn't. I just like screaming stuff when I walk in to places sometimes. Make an entrance." She watched him adjust his vest. "Where's everybody at?"

"I have no idea where Wendy is. Grunkle Stan and Soos are outside doing... something. We probably don't want to know." After clearing his throat, he took the broom and went back to work. "Where have _you_ been? It never takes you four hours to buy knitting supplies."

Giggling, Mabel held up her bag. "Bro, I had to meet a budget. Besides, I made a new friend!"

He hid his eyes and groaned. "Oh boy."

"Ah, relax. She's new here and I volunteered to be her guide." Except she hadn't done any guiding. At all. Her face screwed up. "Oops. I forgot to show her around. Oh well. I'm sure it'll be fine."

"Good job. I bet she's wandering around lost as we speak." Dipper cackled at her mean look. "What's her story?"

"I dunno, she's kinda shy. Her name is Winnie, she's from Iowa, she's got a sister, aaaaaand that's about all I got." Suddenly her eyes lit up. "Hey, you sound like her! All thoughtful and junk. I bet you'd be buddies."

"Huh. That's nice." The sweeping stopped. He delivered a pointed look. "Are you trying to set me up with her?"

She slammed her hands onto her hips and glared right back. "Whaaaaat? No! Come on, man, I met her like twenty minutes ago. Geez."

Dipper folded his arms. "You realize there is precedence for this sort of thing. Kindergarten. First grade. Et cetera."

His stern demeanor did nothing to diminish her grin. "I don't know what that big ol' p-word means. And it doesn't matter, 'cause _no_, I'm not setting you guys up. That would be a low blow to Wendy, man. A low blow." Now he was blushing. "Ha! Tomato face!"

"Why I oughta..." He feigned anger as she skipped away with her shopping bag and into the living room. She returned a few minutes later and hopped up onto the stool behind the counter. "I'm a little surprised you've only made three friends so far. Usually you're everybody's friend."

"I know, right? I blame the weird. And Gideon. Man." She propped her chin in her hands and sighed. "I'm so glad he's in the slammer."

"That makes about three thousand of us."

Before she could add anything, a series of noises from outside drew their attention. "What was that?"

Dipper listened for a moment. "I don't hear anyone screaming. Probably fine."

She nodded. "Yep. I don't wanna go out there, yo. Soooo hot."

"Yeah. Honestly, I didn't think it could get this hot in Oregon. We're almost next to Canada!" They shared a laugh. Just as he went back to sweeping, Wendy opened the door. "There you are. Sleep in?"

"I wish," she groaned, pawing at her furry hat. The redhead was bleary-eyed and sluggish. "I've been up since six o'clock 'cause my dad was... man, I don't even wanna talk about it."

"No, no, tell us!" Mabel encouraged. "We love stories. Dipper especially seems to love ones with you in them."

He chuckled nervously. "Yeah sure ahem... what happened?"

Wendy took the stool and got comfortable. "Dad gets his hacksaw stuck in a Douglas fir. So he punches the tree, right? Well, the tree falls across the highway so my brothers and I gotta help him clear it. Except he gets the saw stuck again so he hauls off and slugs _another tree_ and that one falls in the road too. I gotta get him to take some anger management classes." She smiled and rolled her eyes as the twins giggled. "So, there you go. I spent five hours makin' sure the highway was tree-free."

"Poor Wendy," Mabel said, though she was still grinning. "The life of a lumberjack!"

She nodded and brushed some hair out of her face. "Yep. I miss anything around here besides Mr. Pines building a trampoline over that hole in the ground?"

"Is that what he's doing?" Dipper looked out a nearby window. "I swear, sometimes he's _trying_ to get sued."

"Maybe he's just in the part of his old man-dom where he's starting to hate everybody." A beat passed before Mabel's eyes lit up. "Ooo! I made a new friend!" She waved her hands around. "Her name's Winnie. She just moved here."

The redhead thought for a second. "Oh yeah, that must be the chick that moved into Pacifica's neighborhood. She hasn't been here long enough for gossip to start though, heh."

Dipper blinked as his sister's face got droopy. "What's up?"

"Aw man, all the rich people in Gravity Falls are total jerkfaces." She crossed her arms and got dramatically pouty. "Pacifica's a jerkface, Gideon was a _turbo _jerkface... and his dad is just... ew." But in a moment more her smile returned. "Then again, Winnie didn't seem like a jerkface at all. Maybe the third time's a charm."

Her brother added with a smirk, "Yeah, if the town doesn't drive her insane first."

"That would _never_ happen." Wendy cackled for just a moment before her face dropped. "Unless she runs into ghosts too. Man. Ghosts."

"Not to worry! I told her to drop by if she had any issues." Mabel titled her head at Dipper's surprised look. "What?"

"This place is insanity central. All she'd get is Stan harassing her to buy a keychain or a bobblehead. Or she'll end up on a tour. That's really going to give her a good impression."

"Why wouldn't it? We got a Sascrotch! Hee." She frowned when neither of them cracked a smile. "Y'all so dreary today. Here, look at my sweater. Absorb its happiness!"

Dipper declined, covering his face with the brim of his hat. "I can't, it makes my eyes burn."

"Uh... same, actually," Wendy added, glancing about to avoid the rainbow brilliance of Mabel's outfit. "You are _extra _colorful today."

Mabel folded her arms again, this time with a huff. "Geez. You beam one rainbow into someone's eyes and all of a sudden colors are bad."

Dipper peered at her. "You blinded that someone for four days and he still says his brain is yellow."

"So what? Color needed to happen and color happened. I stand by my actions." Before an argument could get going, a loud bang and shouting from outside made everyone look toward the door. "Uh oh. I think Soos did a Soos thing."

"Yep." Dipper set the broom aside with a sigh. "I guess we'd better go see what's up."

* * *

Winnie found herself in the small electronics store downtown, eying some of the smartphones on sale. As she walked between displays, she slipped her hands into the pockets of her hoodie. One phone caught her attention – black and gleaming with a huge screen, it stood out amongst the smaller examples like the biggest jewel in a technological crown. She blinked at it. Unfortunately, there was a rather large number on the price tag. "Oh dear." Seeing no way around it, she checked her surroundings, frowned, and walked out. On the sidewalk, she exposed her left hand and looked at a phone which was now in her grasp – the phone she'd been looking at before. "I guess it worked." After waiting a bit to see if anyone had suspicions, she headed down the sidewalk and towards the hill where the who's who of Gravity Falls made their homes.

It was something of a climb, but no problem for Winnie. About twenty minutes of walking brought her to what could only be described as the most modest out of a small clump of mansions. This was a single-floor structure clad in brick with a slate shingle roof and wide windows out front. The lawn was carefully manicured, as were all the lawns on this street. She only cracked a smile when glancing at the rose bushes that bracketed the front porch. After sucking in another breath of muggy air, she entered.

The interior was completely empty. Every step on the hardwood caused a scuffing noise from her sandals that bounced for ages through the house. "This is too much," she grumbled to herself. "If only there had been another empty house to use."

Knocking quieted her. She looked through the semi-circular window in the front door and saw a familiar face – her own. It opened after the caller noticed she had been seen. "Sister!" she said, darting over and clamping onto Winnie in a hug.

"That is very bright," she noted, cocking a brow at the red dress.

"What? It's my favorite color." Her eyes, sparkling orbs of ruby, were just as colorful. "...Winnie. Ha."

The tone made her squint. "Sue. I feel like I'm on a leash again."

Sue patted at her bangs and issued a light shrug. "But at least you have company this time."

"Hmm. Yes." Winnie shed her hoodie and pulled at the straps on the black tank top underneath it. Besides their eyes and hair style, the twins were identical in every way – including their builds. Somewhat broad-shouldered and very athletic, they struck imposing figures. "Did you feel the air? What _is_ this place?"

"Yes." Sue crossed her arms in thought. "It's like breathing flesh." She cut her eyes up. "Don't we need furniture? If people want to come over..."

Her idea was dismissed with a frown. "Nobody wants to come here. The neighborhood is too intimidating." Ah, but that might not be true, she realized. "Hmm. Unless the girl I met shows up."

Smiling, Sue took her by the hands. "Oh? Did you make a friend?"

Winnie nodded a little. "Perhaps. Her name is Mabel. She felt it important enough to warn me about the 'weirdness' of Gravity Falls."

"Huh. I wonder if it's related to the..." There wasn't a fully accurate word for the sensation, and so she fell silent for a time. "... air thing. We're still going to need furniture."

"You certainly enjoy decorating, don't you?"

She clasped her hands and grinned widely. "It's a hobby, and I rather like it. You could use one." They smiled at each other before she added, "What is that rhyme about all work and no play?"

"As if either of us have to work for anything." Winnie detached herself and stepped away. "Although figuring out whatever is going on with the atmosphere could be a nice way to pass the time."

"Oh, sister, that's not what I meant by a hobby." Sue folded her arms and tried to look cross, but couldn't manage it. For a while, they were quiet, walking through the house to get their bearings. She looked over to one of the empty walls; except it wasn't empty now. A large painting of a stream running through a forest was hanging there. "First, some art. How does this look?"

"Nice enough." Winnie stood by her and examined the frame. "We have to play this carefully, you know." Her eyes narrowed when Sue didn't respond. "I'm serious. We could break things here. Lots of things. The people here... they are not ready for us."

She heaved a dreary sigh and looked over. "You don't have to tell me that. _Nobody_ is ready for us."

By the next morning, Winnie and Sue had a completely furnished home. Nothing was too ostentatious about the decor, but everything matched the general majesty of the house. Sue was on the front porch with a mug in her hand, watching the sun rise over Gravity Falls. It wasn't long before her sister joined her. "Nice view," she greeted, indicating the vista with her mug. "Reminds me of a few places." Her brow furrowed. "Places I wish had better memories attached to them."

"I know what you mean. Trees everywhere." A ghostly frown came and went as Winnie glanced at her twin's cup. "Coffee?"

"No, just water." She took a swig. "We know nothing about this place. I feel lost."

"I know someone who does."

Sue's head tilted in confusion briefly. "Oh, yes. Your new friend." Winnie didn't add anything else. "Are we taking a trip already?"

"As soon as the sun is a little higher. There's a bus we need to catch and I imagine it's a little early for that."

"Exciting. I haven't gotten to see anything yet." Sue drained her cup and dried off her lips. "Mabel, right? What's she like?"

"Young. Very..." Winnie rolled her eyes about in search of a good term. "Energetic. Fast talker."

"Sounds familiar." They shared a smirk. "Where are we going?"

"A place called the Mystery Shack. All I know is the name."

To kill time, they walked down the hill and into Gravity Falls to watch the town wake up and get an idea of where everything was. The sights included the floating winged dollar sign over the Gleeful car dealership – something that Sue couldn't stop giggling at – as well as the graffiti on the water tower, the lake, and all the little shops downtown that Winnie pointed out for her sister. By the time the sun was fully up, they ended their tour at the bus stop Mabel had run to the day before. They sat on the bench and waited.

"It's cute," Sue decided. "Not much different from home, really." Her lips pursed at a thought. "Besides the sky being so empty."

"Yes." Winnie crossed her legs and stared at the clouds. As time passed, a little crowd gathered around them, apparently all waiting for the same bus. "Hmm. Popular place."

She nodded a little and examined the gathering. "I noticed."

The bus arrived about ten minutes later. Everyone piled on. The twins chose a seat near the back and remained silent during the trip into the woods. Once they actually _saw_ the Mystery Shack, however, Sue couldn't help but speak. "It looks like someone glued this place together," she muttered.

"That would be an insult to glue." Winnie's eyes were narrowed. "Feel it? The air is even worse here."

Only after the rest of the group got out did they emerge. Sue blinked at the fallen 'S' on the grass, while Winnie was more interested in the totem pole off to the side near the trees. The rather dilapidated nature of the building made both women scowl. "Are you sure someone lives here? This looks like a museum. A _bad_ museum," Sue asked.

"This is where she said to go..."

Quiet arrived as someone came out of the house. "Ladies and gentlemen!" he proclaimed, steadying the red fez on his head. "Welcome to the Mystery Shack! You can call me Mister Mystery, or Stan... actually to be honest you could call me Shirley if you were gonna make it worth my while..." The last part of that was mumbled and fast, but the twins still heard it. "Anyway, if you'll follow me right through this door we can get the tour started!"

The group began to move after him, but the twins had no intention of going along. After feigning compliance until the group was gone, Winnie sniffed the air. "Overpowering. We need to find what's doing this."

Sue tugged at her red sandal wedges and looked for things to investigate. "Right. Should we split up?"

"No, let's stick together." They moved toward the side of the house with the totem. "What's this?"

"Looks like a big wooden stick." Sue tapped on it with a fingernail. "...now I have a splinter." Grumbling, she yanked it out from under her nail. "Hmph."

Winnie shook her head at the display and looked off. "I see a hole in the ground." Upon getting there, they found scattered metal tubes and a wooden sign. "Bottomless pit?" She peered down into the abyss. Almost immediately, an overpowering sensation struck. "That is _definitely_ a thing."

"It sure is," her sister agreed, waving away the air out of instinct even though the sensation wasn't really a smell. "Should we jump down?"

"Uh, excuse me?" an uncertain voice interrupted. They turned to see a young boy in a hat and blue vest and grayish shorts, amongst other things. "Are you here with the tour? They kinda went that way." He thumbed over his shoulder.

Winnie approached him first. "Actually, we're looking for Mabel. My name is Winnie."

"Oh, so you're the new... arrivals. Plural." He tilted his head at Sue. "Identical twins, huh? She is gonna blow a freakin' gasket."

Sue was curious. "Why?"

"Because-"

He didn't get a chance to finish since Mabel burst out of the side door behind him. "Diiiiiiiiiiipper! What the frackety fricky frack did you do with my hairband, man?! I put it on the... table...?" Her voice failed completely upon seeing Winnie, only to return as a thrilled, gurgling shriek when she noticed Sue. "Oh. My. Gosh. You guys are twins too! Natural clones, even!"

"Here it comes," Dipper sighed, not even trying to stop her as she darted off the porch.

"Eeeeeeee this is awesome!" she shrieked, running quick circles around the two women. "Why didn't you tell me you were twins?! We coulda had a huge twin party!"

"Wow, she _is_ energetic," Sue said with a tiny grin.

"Mm. We just thought we'd stop by and say hello." Winnie gently stopped her with both hands the next time she ran by. "Don't get dizzy."

"Pff, dizzy? I'd never get di-dizzy." The hitch in her voice – and some random eye wobbling – said otherwise. "Okay, uh, the sky needs to stop being the ground. That's not cool."

"Oh boy." Dipper guided her away as she started to retch. "She'll be fine. Welcome to the Mystery Shack! Believe it or not, we live here. I think we might be the only people Grunkle Stan doesn't try to charge an entry fee."

Sue blinked. "What's a Grunkle?"

"Grunkle's a portly manatee of Great and Uncle!" Mabel explained, her cheeks bulging as the last words got out. "Oh snap, I'm gonna hurl..."

Were he not busy trying to stop her from doing just that, Dipper would have facepalmed hard. "She means portmanteau. Sorry. She ate half a bag of Cookie Chips for breakfast and I am genuinely concerned her heart is going to implode."

"Sugaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaaar," she droned in confirmation.

While they fussed with each other, the identical twins shared a dark expression. "Well, I wasn't expecting this," Winnie muttered, trying to avoid attention. The sting of the feeling that flowed from the bottomless pit still rattled around in their skulls.

The red-eyed woman nodded, then stared at a goat that appeared from around the back of the house. "I don't know _what_ I was expecting, but I can't disagree with you."


	2. Fuerza

Dipper and Mabel lead them into the shop, where Wendy sat behind the counter idly reading a magazine. The redhead glanced up and blinked. "Whoa. Sure is twins in here."

"I know! Isn't it great?" Mabel, as usual, made no attempt at all to hide her enthusiasm. "We're best friends now." She slammed her hand over Dipper's mouth when he opened it to protest. "Shhhh, bro. This is happening. It's happening."

He thwacked her hand away. "Of course it is."

"Who's this?" Sue asked, indicating the redhead.

"What's up? I'm Wendy. I work... uh, I'm employed by Mister Pines." She chuckled a little at her correction. "You're the new girls, right?" Something told her this wasn't the right word – they looked older than the redhead, although that might have been a function of their intimidating stature. They were certainly taller by an inch or two. Maybe more.

Winnie nodded while looking around the shop. "Mm, that would be us."

"Cool. Welcome." She doffed her hat for a moment to scratch. "Let me be the first to assure you that this place is about as strange as it gets in Gravity Falls. At least I'm pretty sure." A beat passed. "Actually, uh, there's an abandoned store in town called the Dusk 2 Dawn. My advice is to like, never go there. Seriously." A shudder took her. "Geez. I still have nightmares."

Sue gave her an inappropriately bright smile. "We'll keep that in mind."

The grin was returned – although awkwardly – as Wendy went back to her reading. "Heh. Nice colored contacts, by the way. Makes you look like a demon."

"Huh? Oh." She pulled at her cheeks to make her eyes look wider. "It's the only way people can tell us apart besides our hairstyles. And my voice."

"Sue was always the optimistic one. You can literally hear it." Winnie had been wandering through the shop as her sister chatted, examining items at random. "I seem to have found a jar of eyeballs." There was an uncomfortable look in her eyes.

Mabel darted over to her, but didn't notice the expression. "Ooo, I love those! Waddles fetches them for me! Most of the time."

"And by fetch she means he eats them," Dipper added. "Waddles is her pet pig, by the way."

This information caused Sue to cock an eyebrow. "There's a goat _and_ a pig?"

He nodded. "Yep. Who knows how long he's been hanging around, but he eats _anything_. Between him and Waddles I'm surprised there's a Mystery Shack at all."

Mabel was looking displeased. "That sweater-eating little creep. I should train Waddles to fight him. Hiyaaaaaa!" she yelled, karate chopping the air. "Attack Pig!"

Sue chuckled at her antics. Winnie's reaction was limited to a smile. "Is this place actually a museum?" the blue-eyed twin asked. "I can't figure out where you would fit one now that I'm inside."

"Museum is way too much of an overstatement." Dipper waved them all toward a door with an 'Employees Only' sign. "Come on, we can talk in here. If Stan sees you guys in the gift shop he won't stop until you buy something." Through this portal was the living room. The three ladies sat at the round table. "You two want a soda? We've got about seven cases worth of Pitt."

"Yes!" Winnie said, for once sounding as enthusiastic as her sister. Her brow furrowed when Sue giggled. "Yes."

"Aw. You guys are adorable together. As is right and proper for twins." Mabel looked between them. "So, whatcha think about the town, huh? Is it as... I dunno, whatever Iowa is. Flat? Tornado-y?" Winnie's eyes narrowed at the last word. "Whoa. Uh. I guess that was a nerve I just stepped on."

Sue decided to speak for them both, and in the process change the subject. "It's a lot like home. More trees. More cliffs. We didn't have a lake with a waterfall, though."

"Good! I'm sorry I didn't really do any guiding for you yesterday. If I hadn't caught that bus I was seriously going to die to death in the heat trying to walk home. You understand." She flashed a metallic smile at their nods. "Cool. If you want, we can do the tour thing now! Of Gravity Falls, I mean."

"We sort of walked around this morning to find things," Winnie replied.

Crestfallen, Mabel crossed her arms and pouted. "Aw, man. Well, Dippingsauce and I could show you the _other_ stuff!"

The identical twins glanced at each other again. "What other stuff?" Sue asked.

"Oh man, there's too much to name. Like the dinosaurs in the old mine. There's tons! Like a Puh-terodactyl that tried to kill us, a tyrannosauruseses, a..." She paused to yell into the kitchen. "Hey, Dipper! Hurry up with the soda! I need you in here to say big words for me!"

"Just a second!" He returned at last with four cans of Pitt. "Sorry, I had to open a new case." He made sure Winnie and Sue got the cold ones. "Here you go."

They both took a drink and had only one thing to say: "Peachy."

Mabel couldn't help but snicker. "Pff. You guys are the cutest."

"Nobody has ever called me cute before," Winnie noted between swallows. "What other things happen around here? Besides the dinosaurs, I mean."

"Wow." Dipper looked at the ceiling and tried to gather his thoughts. "Well, there's a lot of weird stuff in the lake. An island tried to eat us."

Mabel groaned at the memory. "Yeah, that wasn't very fun."

"Uh huh. And the pit you guys were looking at? One hundred percent bottomless." The twins' blank stares made him think they thought he'd gone off the deep end. "I swear! We've fallen in it. We've personally tested its bottomless-ness."

Mabel snorted lightly. "Grunkle Stan tested it twice!"

Sue was having a hard time with the concept. "But how can a hole have no bottom?"

"It's Gravity Falls, man! This place is the weirdest. Kinda numbs you after a while because you're like 'oh well the local psychic just built a huge robot to destroy us' and then you're like 'which is only the 57th most whacko thing that's happened to me this month'! I ain't even kidding, man. The place is a weird sandwich with strange chips and a what-the-heck soda." To punctuate this, she took a drink from her actual soda. "For real."

Dipper suddenly looked cross. "We could show you more, but Grunkle Stan's got my journal."

This drew their interest, Winnie's especially. "You wrote all this down?"

He shook his head. "Not me. Somebody wrote at least three journals detailing all the insanity that happens around here. Whether or not the first one still exists I don't know, but I had number three and our mortal enemy had number two before he got sent to prison. No idea where that one went either. They're full of notes and diagrams about stuff you can't even imagine."

Again the twins shared a look. "We'd very much like to read these," Sue stated. "What did your... um, Grunkle... do with number three?"

"No idea. I ask for it back and he tries to whack me with his cane."

"Which, by the way, is absolutely as hilarious as it sounds." Mabel ignored his unhappy expression and kept drinking. "You guys interested in this stuff? Most people don't seem to notice it. Honestly I think they're too dumb." Her eyes dropped to the table. "That's mean of me to say. But dang. They are _dumb_."

Winnie crossed her arms and glared off into space. "We've been through too much to be closed-minded."

Now it was the Pines who were exchanging uncertain glances. "Uh, do you guys need a hug?" Mabel asked.

"No, I'm fine." The blue-eyed twin didn't really look fine, but her tone was a distinct shade of 'back off, please'. "I find this hard to believe. Why hasn't anyone else noticed all these things?"

Mabel sighed and played with her hairband. "Dude, I told you. People here are box-of-rocks dumb. I mean d-to-the-u-m-b _dumb_. It's like there's some sort of brain-suppressing stupidity field or something."

Dipper hopped into the old yellow recliner and nodded. "No joke. You guys say you're not closed-minded? Well almost everybody here is. Especially Grunkle Stan. I guess he's gotten so jaded he doesn't believe anything anymore. And he freaking _fought_ the dinosaurs! How can he keep blowing this stuff off?!"

Sue slouched back in her chair, then exhaled long and low. "If we can't talk to anyone... maybe we should look around for ourselves?"

"I feel like I should warn you that most of the stuff we've run into has either kidnapped us or tried to kill us."

The twins looked over at him and blinked. "Oh?" Winnie rubbed her chin and looked contemplative. "We'll be careful. Just point us in the right direction."

"Whoa whoa whoa. We're not going to send you to your deaths! Who do you think we are, _Gideon_?" Mabel's face went blank when she saw her comparison fail. "Oops. Forgot you don't know who he is."

Her brother rolled his eyes. "If only we were so lucky. All you need to know is he's in jail and far away."

She thought for a moment and shrugged. "I'm fine with this. Still, though, it'd be kinda bad if we told you to check something out and then you got murdered in the face."

"We will certainly do our best to avoid being murdered anywhere," Sue assured her cheerfully. "But we're really... curious about this place. It seems so odd."

Winnie's face indicated she was feeling grumpy. "Odd is a nice way of putting it."

"Hrm. I mean, you guys look like you could bench press a Buick and all..." Mabel made a few 'hrmph' noises as she considered her next words. "Ah, why not. I'm sure you guys could get away from anything bad."

"Seriously, please don't get killed," Dipper added. "Hey, Mabel, what's the _safest_ thing we could send them to check out? Like a Gravity Falls beginner course."

"Uh... good question." She hopped out of her chair and began to walk around. "Not the gnomes, probably. Island lake monster head thing is a no-go. And I never want to see those stupid crystal things again."

Sue raised her hand. "I want to see the dinosaurs."

Mabel turned to look. "I don't think you can get in there anymore. There was this really old church over the entrance and when we escaped it kinda exploded like kapow!" She added some more explosive sound effects for several seconds afterward.

"And also it's insanely dangerous," Dipper advised. "I'm glad that hole is sealed over."

The red-eyed twin kept prodding. "Where's the hole?"

"In the woods." He drew back in the face of Winnie's icy stare. "What? There's a dirt road in the woods that leads to the church. That's all I've got. And that's all I'm going to give you because you'd be nuts to try and get into the mines."

Mabel blinked a few times. "Wait, we went into the mines. What does that make us?"

He didn't really have a good answer. "Uh... heroic?"

"You know what? I accept that."

"Very well." Winnie rose and started toward the gift shop door. "We will find it ourselves."

"Oh dear." Sue gave chase, but stopped to say goodbye first. "Sorry. She's a little antsy. Thanks for the chat." After a little wave, she was gone. She only caught up after reaching the front yard. Off to the left, Stan was arguing with the tour group about a rock that looked like a face. "Sister! Wait!"

"I need to walk around for a while or _punch _something," she hissed.

"Then let's take a walk." After she fell in with Winnie, the twins entered the forest. They moved in silence for a few minutes, passing through an endless clump of evergreens until reaching a stream that they decided to follow. The air was tense. It bothered Sue to see Winnie like this, but she lacked the strength right then to address the _actual_ problem. Instead, her mind went to the possible task at hand. "I've got a question, though," she blurted out.

Winnie kept her face forward. "What?"

Sue looked over anyway. "What is a 'dinosaur'?"

* * *

Three hours of walking had gotten them only a change in the kind of trees that blotted out the sun. Now they were in a stand of immense sequoia, so broad and tall they could no longer see the forest for the trees in a very literal sense. Winnie had been quiet most of the time. Sue had finally gotten tired of it.

"Talk to me!" she demanded, fists clenched and voice bouncing harshly off the mighty trunks.

Her twin came to a slow halt before turning around. "What do you want me to say?"

Sighing, she leaned against one of the great trees and patted idly at her red dress. "Anything. There's no point in being quiet. Not even the sun can find us here. There are no ears to hide from."

Confronted with this logic, Winnie relented. "I haven't had a very good three days."

"Why?"

"You know why." She turned her back again and stared off. "I'm having to hide myself all over again. You never had to experience the fear."

"I... I guess not." Sue walked over and poked her in the side. "You're terrible at expressing pain, you know?"

Winnie frowned and swatted at her finger. "Of course I am._ You're_ more complete than me."

"Yes. But she offered to finish the process. Why didn't you take her up on it?"

Groaning, the blue-eyed twin turned away and walked a few steps. "After all she's done to us? I never want to see her again. I'm surprised you did."

Sue understood this feeling; a vague version of it lurked in her heart too. Unlike her sister, however, it never really had time to settle. To harden. "Maybe I won't either, eventually. Do you hate her?"

"I don't know _how_ I feel, to be honest."

Despite her non-committal answer, the tension was broken. Seeing no reason to pursue the conversation any further, Sue moved on and waved for Winnie to follow. "Come on, we have vacationing to do. Do you smell the air?"

"Like pine-scented corpses. A smell I never thought I'd have to face again." Her eyes went to the canopy, where only small flecks of sky could be seen.

"Me neither. I guess I see why you're a little testy."

"Mm." They crested a hill and tried to get some sense of direction. "Where are we?"

"Who knows. As far as I can tell it's forest all the way to forever." Something up ahead got Sue's attention. "Wait. There's a gap in the trees." They had been split by a dirt path, wide enough for a car and curving off into the woods in both directions. The twins hopped down an embankment to reach it. "This must be our dirt road in the forest." She kicked at the trail and watched puffs of dust float away. "Which way should we try first?"

Winnie was looking at her phone. "No idea. And no signal. I suppose we'll just have to pick a direction and go." Left won. The path swayed to and fro like a drunk, forced to curve around redwoods that stood scarred and victorious over innumerable axes and chainsaws. Off in the extreme distance they heard the babbling of a creek but couldn't even get a glimpse of it. All her phone was good for now was keeping the time, and about twenty minutes of it passed before she noticed something white and shattered coming around a gentler bend. "Look." Her left arm raised. "See it?"

"Yes!" They broke into a run. The road died at the foot of an obliterated building, whose scraps had been launched several yards in all directions by some force. Bits of stained-glass windows littered the soil and grass. "Huh. Does this look like a church to you, sister?"

"Based on the ones I've seen. They tend to have some sort of colored glass windows." Winnie picked up a few shards and peered at them. "What happened here? It's destroyed."

"Maybe it was a dinosaur!" Sue was a bit too excited about the prospect.

"Oh, sister." Winnie rolled her eyes and tossed away the glass. Together they approached the church and, after some effort, found a way to slip into the rubble. At the back was the opening that lead into the earth. "I think we've found the hole." She noticed a coiled-up rope on the ground next to something spewing clouds of steam. "I suppose we have to jump."

Sue nodded. "Okay. Ready when you are." They dropped into the void, falling feet first and slamming onto the gray rock, where they crouched upon landing to dissipate the energy with a dreadful pair of thuds. Aside from the dust they kicked up, which caused a cough or two, neither woman seemed affected by the hundred-plus feet of air they'd just covered. A massive tunnel with a narrow-gauge track leading into it caught their eye. The red-eyed woman sucked in a deep breath. "Smell the air. It's so empty now."

"Yes, I noticed. Let's try the big tunnel first." Winnie lead the way, using her phone to provide light. Her brow furrowed abruptly. "And that's another thing. I'm tired of having to hide my hands again."

Sue looked at her own, skinned in peachy porcelain and seemingly unremarkable from fingernails to wrists. "Why? The people here don't know any better. It's safer for them that way."

"That's the point."

"Wow." Almost helplessly, she stopped and watched her sister walk ahead. "You really _do_ need to punch something, huh?"

"Yes. I hope dinosaurs are durable. I have a lot of..." Winnie fell silent as the tunnel expanded into a large hollow full of columns of yellowish, translucent material. In many of these slept some awful reptile from the distant past – but more than a few of the columns were ripped open and empty, with little globs of melted liquid tracing paths away between massive footsteps. "I believe we've found them."

"Huh." Sue darted over to a stegosaurus and looked it over. "I didn't know lizards could get this big. This place is exciting!"

There was a smooth sarcasm in her sister's reply. "So very exciting." Before she could say more, a strange sound reached their ears. It was angry – and sort of screechy. "What was that?" There was no time for a guess. Out of the darkness charged a Utahraptor, thundering at the twins with fearsome strides. It was heavy enough to make the ground shake. Winnie tossed her phone over to Sue and prepared to defend herself as the creature arrived, mouth open and filled with pearly daggers to tear her asunder. She ducked under its lunge and shot through its rear legs, glancing at the massive upraised claws on each of its feet. When it turned to track her, she slammed a fist into the side of its jaw. A mighty crack echoed through the cavern, followed by a screech of pain that faded as the beast ran away from them. "Do I look like a snack to you?" she hissed lowly, smoothing her hair back down.

"Sister!" Sue popped out from behind a triceratops and frowned. "You didn't have to hurt it..."

"I should have torn its head off. Give me my phone." Once she had it again they pressed on, entering a corridor that lacked wooden braces and seemed natural in origin. A louder roar flowed from the opposite end. "Here we go again."

A much larger room awaited them, dome-shaped and full of giant skeletons. Fresh ones. The space was so big it ate the phone's light after a distance, making it impossible to get a true sense of its size. Another roar came, far louder and clearly coming from some other part of this cave. Heavy, rhythmic vibrations seemed to indicate something much larger than the raptor Winnie had just fought off. Those vibrations were getting stronger. Sue came to a stop, trying to pierce the darkness with her sight. "Um... Winnie?" She looked up as a pale glow lit a tremendous beast that towered above them. "Sister..."

Winnie was more resigned than surprised. "I see it."

The tyrannosaur let rip with another guttural cry and bent down to take a bite. Just as its snout reached the top of Winnie's head, it stopped – and despite incredible struggling could drop no further. Sue was under its mighty jaw, pushing up and holding it there with both hands. "This is a big one!" she yelled through clenched teeth. Confused and angry, the beast lifted up and gave chase as Winnie began to run. Sue avoided its ponderous gait and climbed up onto its back to ride it. "I'm riding a dinosaur!"

"Good idea." The blue-eyed woman jumped when the beast attacked again, then ran up the bridge of its nose to join her sister on its shoulders. "What do we do with this one?" It was quite displeased and started whirling about in circles. The twins slammed their palms down onto its leathery skin to stay aboard. "Well?"

"You stay here. I'll knock it out." Sue took the phone to light her way and dropped off, skittering across the stone like an insect – which, relatively speaking, was more or less what she was. It chased her vigorously, but she had better acceleration and left it behind. Once there was enough distance between them, she slid to a stop and let it charge her, loading up her right hand as it covered yards with each stride. Waiting until she could almost count the teeth in its mouth, she fired her ready punch and made contact between its nostrils. Its momentum was almost stopped cold; Sue slid back as the creature's inertia went to her, but it was mostly stationary – until it fell over onto its side with a wispy groan and went limp.

Winnie slid to the floor and walked over. "Good shot."

"Oops." She stooped and looked at the results of her strike. Considerable streams of red were pouring from the beast's nose. "I think I accidentally killed it."

"I'll pause for a moment of silence later." She waved off Sue's attempt to return her phone, and instead reached into the tyrannosaur's mouth. Her hand came out with a huge tooth. "Yes, it's probably dead."

"Huh." Sue looked at her hand and frowned. "I think I understand why you're so big on restraint."

"Mm." Another sniff of the air made her frown. "Let's go back up before something genuinely threatening finds us. I'll certainly keep this place in mind the next time I need to vent."

Souvenir in hand, the twins made their return trip. This went without incident and soon they were in the gray cavern once more, looking up at the hole. There was no discussion about how to get back, no planning and in fact, no speaking at all. They simply jumped, reaching the broken floor of the church with hardly any effort. Winnie put her phone away and eyed her toothy prize, but a sound from beyond the rubble made them pause. "I hear someone calling us."

"Mabel?" Sue emerged first and saw the Pines a little ways up the road, exhausted-looking and yelling their names. "Here we are!"

"Oh my gooooosh," Mabel wheezed. "Dipper! Here they are!" She greeted them with a weak wave and noted the dirty nature of Sue's red dress. "He was freaking out that you might have actually gone through with it. I guess he was right."

"We're fine," Winnie assured her, tucking the tooth out of sight as Dipper arrived. "Why did you come looking for us?"

His reply was breathless but didn't lack conviction. "Because I wouldn't have been able to live with myself if I didn't make sure you were okay."

Sue gave him a happy pat on the hat. "How nice of you!"

"Hey, you got something." Dipper had noticed the tooth despite her best efforts to hide it. "Wow, big one. You guys find it in the church?"

Winnie brought it around front and held it up. It was obviously fresh, but the kids were too tired to notice. "No."

Mabel came over to look at it. "Fossil?" Her head tilted. "Wait, why is it red on the not-pointy part? I'm confused."

"I pulled it out of the mouth of a live one that tried to kill us." She nodded at her sister, then up the road. "Come on, let's go. I want to take a shower and look around town some more."

Her initial answer didn't sink in with either of the Pines because of their weary state, but long after the goodbyes had been exchanged and the identical twins were gone, they'd had a chance to catch their breath and steady their minds. "You know, they seem pretty nice. Could be good to have around if Bill comes back," Dipper noted, wiping sweat off his brow and getting ready for the walk back to the Mystery Shack.

"Yeah, I agree. And that tooth was awesome! I wants me one." Winnie's statement registered at last. Her eyes slowly widened. "Wait, did she say she pulled it from a live one that tried to kill them?"

"Huh? No, she said she pulled it from a... live one... that... wha?" His vocal cords gradually disconnected from thought as the realization reached his brain too. They looked at each other, sharing an equal amount of confusion and shock.


	3. And I Don't Care Who Sees

The dawn found Mabel and Dipper, bleary-eyed and yawning, in the back of Stan's ancient sedan. The three of them were headed to the lake – in a downpour. It was raining so hard they could hardly see the road out the windshield. If it hadn't been for their lack of sleep, the thought of their great uncle – cataracts and all – trying to see through the raindrops would have made them shriek with terror.

"Grunkle Stan, why do you hate us?" she asked, trying to rub the tired out of her eyes.

There was a large yellow-toothed smile on his face. "You two need some fresh air, and this time I'm gonna catch something! Something fish-shaped I mean. Besides, everyone knows there are two times to fish: when it's early, and when it's raining. We got the best of both worlds!"

Dipper, slumped forward against the seat belt because he had no power to sit upright, groaned long and loud. "Don't fish _sleep _when's it early?"

"I don't have an answer for that. Besides, we're probably the only ones dumb—brave, I mean brave enough to go out. We'll have all of those bass to ourselves."

Mabel was wholly unable to think. "For _what_? What are we gonna do with fish?!"

Still grinning, he adjusted he glasses. "Cook them. Mount them on our walls as proof of our fishing prowess. _Sell them_! I haven't figured out who's gonna buy 'em yet, but give me a minute. There's some sucker somewhere. Probably on the internet tubes or whatever you call it now." Suddenly his face dropped. "I'm just gonna assume I'm still on the road."

Too sleepy for his brain to recognize danger or process panic, Dipper responded like a zombie. He currently looked like one anyway. "Unnnnnngh."

By some miracle they reached the lake. While Stan hopped out of the car, umbrella in hand, to go rent a boat, his great niece and nephew more or less fell out onto the ground and laid there. "Dipper, we have to... we have to move," Mabel droned around a mouthful of sand.

His body and brain were still disconnected, leaving him an immobile pile. "Get to the trunk. Gotta get the umbrellas."

She managed to engage her limbs first and stand up, dashing to the rear of the car as the frigid rain penetrated her sweater. In her rush, she only pulled out one umbrella, a bright yellow thing with a huge smiley face on top. Instead of fumbling for the other, she went back to Dipper and knelt down beside him to try to protect him from the rain until he was able to move. "Hey. Hey. Broface. Wake up," she encouragred, gently patting his cheek. "Dipper! You're gonna drown!"

"I _am_ up. Alive, I mean. Not literally up." He got to his knees, shaking with cold. "Where's Stan? Let's go push him into the lake."

After looking around, she gave him some help with standing. "In the shop, I guess. And we could, but who would drive us back?" Her face went blank. "On second thought it would probably be less dangerous if one of us were behind the wheel."

"No joke." They went to the trunk so he could get his own umbrella and the cooler full of soda. He began to drag it away toward the shore. "Look out there. I can't believe people are actually trying to fish in this disaster." Before long that included Stan, who raced out onto the lake screaming about making fish into trophies. "Wow. He forgot us."

"We couldn't go anyway, we ain't got any life jackets." Mabel peered through the deluge. "Sit on the shop porch and drink soda 'til we puke?"

Dipper shrugged his approval. "Sounds like a plan to me."

And so they did, watching the best – or at least most persistent – fishermen and women Gravity Falls had to offer fail hilariously at catching anything. "Um, how did Lazy Susan get her boat to turn upside down without falling out of it?" Mabel asked, pointing that way. The waitress was sitting on the capsized vessel, rowing toward the opposite end of the lake. "Look at her... uh, go. I guess."

"I don't know. It's way too early to brain." Half an hour passed as they tried to fully wake up. The rain eased some, but not much; most of the occupants of the smaller boats on the water had to bail constantly to keep afloat. This included Stan. "Bet you a dollar he sinks."

Mabel snorted. "I'd do better just giving you a dollar than take _that_ bet."

"Ha! Man, I'm freezing." Dipper tried to hide in his vest as she did with her sweaters. "Hey, I meant to ask you. What do you think of the new girls?"

She shrugged a little. "They seem nice. Winnie's a little scary though. Kinda reminds me of Gideon except taller and prettier."

"Yeah, I was thinking the same thing." He stared off in thought. "You really think she got that tooth from a living dinosaur?"

"Come on, bro-bro, she'd have to be a freaking superhero to do that. She was just messing with us."

"Yeah. You're right." The conversation died there due to a pervasive, but distant noise that came from over their shoulders where the highway was. "What _is_ that? Do you hear it?"

"Huh?" Mabel set her soda down and looked back. A few seconds passed; she let the sound get louder and clearer before trying to put a label on it. "Car? Sounds _evil_. There weren't any Transformer type death-bots in the journal, were there?"

"No, thank goodness." He stood and walked off the porch with Mabel not far behind. "Boy, you weren't kidding about the 'evil' part. It's like a dragon with psychosis."

The din was so apparent now that people on the lake were looking for its source. "This better not be aliens. I didn't get enough sleep for aliens."

Fortunately, the source was terrestrial – but no less breathtaking. A silver beast of a car slipped through the trees and pulled up beside Stan's old clunker. Its exhaust note was indescribable both in volume and tone, at least until the engine was cut and the two doors opened. The identical twins stepped out – Winnie had been driving – and waved at a stunned Dipper and Mabel.

"Is this a Lamborghini?!" he exclaimed, running over. "Wendy said you guys were rich, but _whoa_!"

"Great googly moogly," Mabel whispered, jaw dropped and one hand on her face. Her eyes were drawn to the odd interior color – black with green accents – and the enormous red brake calipers. "We heard you coming for miles!"

"Do you like it? It's very shiny!" Sue beamed at them, then at her sister. "I can't pronounce its name, though."

"Huracán. I believe it's Italian for hurricane?" Winnie shrugged. "Whatever. I like the noise it makes."

"Of course you do." Neither woman had umbrellas, so they followed the twins back to the shelter of the shop porch. "Why is your uncle fishing in a rainstorm?"

Mabel shook her head at him; he was the only one on the lake not trying to take a picture of the supercar with a camera or phone. "Because he's old and nobody's going to tell him what to do. And I think he has a vendetta against bass."

Sue blinked. "...interesting. Anyway, my sister wanted to apologize and there was a note on the door that said you were here. Actually, it said – and I quote – 'We are at the lake don't bother us go away'."

Dipper's brow furrowed. "Gee, I wonder who wrote that." This time they all looked toward Stan. He looked back and gave Winnie a wry grin. "Get any more dinosaur teeth?"

Realizing he took her statement yesterday as a joke, Winnie decided to run with it. "I'm afraid not." Her smile faded. "I didn't mean to seem so unhappy yesterday. I've been dealing with some... personal things." Her eyes darted over as Mabel glomped onto her right side. "Huh?"

She issued a few pats on the back. "S'okay. We all have days. Besides, Sue already apologized for you."

With a sigh, she relaxed and accepted the hug. "I know. I wanted to do it in person. I try not to come across as scary, but Sue is better at it than I am."

"It's cool." Dipper glanced back at their car. "Dang. I'm just waiting for Stan to figure out how much that thing cost and come over here looking for cash."

The red-eyed woman nudged her sister. "Which reminds me, what was the price on the invoice again?"

Winnie, still bearing a Mabel-shaped leech, shrugged again. "Two hundred and eighty-five thousand something. It's not like the money matters."

Several laws of physics were violated the moment she uttered those words. Stan appeared before them as if by magic, a broad smile on his face. The Pines recognized it as his semi-professional 'prepare to get conned' expression, while the other two twins were just startled by his sudden arrival. "Good morning, ladies! I'm Stan Pines, Gravity Falls' most beloved entrepreneur." His face screwed up. "Well, behind that guy who runs the arcade. And the Greasy's Diner guy. And the... fourth. I am at least the fourth most beloved entrepreneur in Gravity Falls. I couldn't help but notice your exceptional taste in motor vehicles." He thumbed over to the Lamborghini, eyebrows waggling.

"Grunkle Stan, don't you dare," Mabel warned, her eyes narrowed. "These our are new friends! Don't do the things!'

He put on his best insulted face and adjusted his glasses. "What things? I'm not doing any things. I'm simply complimenting the obvious financial acumen and/or enormous family inheritance of, uh, what are your names again?"

"I'm Winnie. This is Sue." The blue-eyed woman regarded Stan with a confused look. "How did you get over-

"Never mind that. Did you say that thing cost you almost three _hundred_ grand?"

Sue crossed her arms. "Well, yes. So what?"

"Hmm. That's a pretty wad of dough to drop on a car, you know. Got any cash I could, uh, borrow? It'd be an investment of course. You'd get... stuff. A great ROI and compound interest and other words and acronyms." Stan rubbed his hands together, grinning like a madman. "And I'd get sweet, sweet cash! Everyone wins."

"Grunkle Stan!" Both Dipper and Mabel yelled at him this time.

The identical twins were by now engaged in a staring contest with each other. It got awkward after a few seconds – especially for the old man. "Oh boy, you're doing that thing these two do. That twins thing with the no talking. Stop it! Stop with the creepy! Use words like the rest of us!"

Their silent conversation was over. Winnie stood up and stared him dead in the eye. "If we actually did give you money, what would we get in return?"

"Well, uh... gonna be honest here, I didn't really expect you to consider the offer." He moved off a few steps and faced away while thinking.

"No! Don't do it!" Dipper yelled, waving his hands. "He'll rob you blind!"

Mabel agreed vehemently, but soon lost her train of thought. "Yeah! He'll... hee hee hee, he's kinda blind. A blind guy robbing people blind."

Sue also stood. Both sisters sported expressions that made the young Pines' skin crawl. "The last people that tried to steal from us didn't fare well," Sue said, her voice lacking all its usual cheerfulness. "I wouldn't recommend it."

"Okay, this just got tense," Dipper pointed out. "Stan, seriously. Leave them alone. They just moved in."

"But they're rich!" He looked remarkably pouty. "Throw me a bone! I'll... I'll give you free bobbleheads! They're Stantastic!"

His niece snapped her arm in the direction the lake. "No! No bones! Get back on your boat and go fish!"

"Awwwww." Stan walked off the porch, but whirled around and pointed at Winnie and Sue. "You're lucky the kids like you!" He received a pair of hellish glares in reply. "Yeesh. You two are grumpier than me. I didn't think that was possible." He turned away and went back toward the docks.

Mabel rubbed her face and sighed. "I am so sorry."

Sue was still displeased. "He seems... nice."

"He'll grow on you," Dipper said, sitting back down. "Believe it or not. Right now he probably just views you guys as tourists. Walking wallets full of cash."

"Like a big money pinata!" Mabel also sat, wincing at the splinters that jabbed into her thighs. "Yeowch! Stupid wood! Haven't you people heard of belt sanders?"

Winnie smoothed her hair back and sighed, releasing an invisible cloud of frustration. "Let's go home. I'm getting tired of the weather. Perhaps we'll drop by the shack if the weather clears up and see something interesting together."

"Sure!" Mabel stood and gave each a quick hug. "Really though we are so, so, _so_ sorry. Once that man sees dollar signs... ugh."

At least the red-eyed woman had regained her usual cheer. "It's all right. See you later!" Just as soon as they were back in the car, she looked at Winnie and frowned. "We should actually get to the _vacation_ part of our vacation, shouldn't we?"

"Tell that to the air." She started the engine and relished the noise it made. "It's driving me insane. Why would it feel like this? It's too similar."

They were pulling out and back onto the road, so Sue had to wait for the metallic apocalypse behind her to quiet down. "I agree, but what if we break something by finding out?" Winnie's face bent with anger. "Sister?"

"Don't you get tired of feeling like you have to walk on eggshells? I do." There was no answer. They drove on in whatever amount of silence the engine felt like giving them. "I thought the point of a vacation was to feel better. Maybe we should go back."

"But we've already made friends."

She just sighed and kept on driving. "Yes. At least something went right."

"And they know something odd is going on, even if they perceive it differently. I wish he had that journal. Maybe it would help put your mind at ease."

"Maybe." Winnie pulled up for a red light and glanced around. "I'm surprised at how similar things are here. They even drive on the right. We'd better bring some of the electronics with us when we return, though."

"Ooo, yes. Laptops are neat. I know _someone_ who'll like them." They shared a grin. "I hope things are getting along well without us."

"I'm sure they're fine. If they needed us, they would come out here and get us."

"Right." Sue looked out her window at more people taking pictures of their car. "Uh, I think we're using the wrong kind of transportation. Everyone's staring at it."

"We could draw far more attention than this. Besides, you could call it 'hiding in plain sight'." Her twin launched the Lamborghini and headed for the hills. "Speaking of hiding, I think we can drop the nicknames. That boy's name is Dipper. Our real ones are no worse than his."

"Aw, I happen to like them. Honestly, yours is hilarious." A pointed look from her sister caused a laugh. "Besides, it's a chance for us to be someone new!"

Winnie's eyes narrowed. "I'm not sure I agree with that sentiment."

* * *

They found themselves back at the Mystery Shack just after noon. Once again, their ride attracted attention. This time it came from a tour group waiting to go in.

"Hey! You wanna take a picture of that thing, give me five dollars!" Stan demanded, standing between them and the Lamborghini to block their views.

Eyes rolling, the twins ignored him and walked to the side of the house. The moment Sue opened the door and looked to the living room, where Dipper and Mabel were, Wendy burst in through the gift shop. "Holy crap!" she yelled, pointing outside. "Do you see that thing parked out front?"

Dipper chuckled at her. "We know, it's theirs. By the way, hey."

Winnie couldn't help but smile at the redhead's slack-jawed look. "Hello." The sensation she felt before wafted around, just out of reach of her usual senses. Sue felt it too – both twins' eyes narrowed when they glanced at each other. "It sure is... muggy."

"Yeah," Mabel agreed around a mouthful of some chips. "I don't even need a drink! I just breathe and get _gallons_ of water."

Wendy interrupted, walking closer. "C-can I go check out your car?" she asked timidly. "I wanna post a pic on Facebook. Tambry is gonna freak out."

"Sure!" Sue replied happily. "I still feel like we went overboard," she added, addressing her sister with crossed arms after the redhead was gone.

"I do not care." Winnie's interest was on the TV. The volume was down, but on screen was an odd-looking boy with poofy white hair. He appeared to be in a prison. "What are you watching?"

"Ugggggggggggh," Mabel groaned dramatically. "Lil' Gideon's Big House. This is the jerk I was talkin' about yesterday."

"And we're not watching it, we're waiting on the next show," her brother corrected. "Which happens to be Mabel's favorite."

"Happy little clouds!" she blurted out, throwing her hands into the air. "Woooo!"

"I... see. I guess." Winnie nudged Sue, now standing on her right, to stop her giggling. "We were wondering if you'd give us the special tour now. The one you mentioned yesterday."

"Aww, but also yay! Let me get my sneakers!" Mabel was gone in a flash, thumping up the stairs before Dipper could even stand.

"Heh. You know, it's nice to have a few more people willing to accept something weird is going on around here," he admitted, straightening his vest. "I mean, besides Wendy, but I think it bothers her a little. You guys don't seem to mind."

"Nope. We've seen things you people wouldn't believe!" Sue's chipper tone made the words sound a little odd.

Dipper's face went blank. "Oh. I'll just not even ask."

"Good idea." Winnie moved them all toward the door as Mabel hopped back down. "This should be interesting."

Oh, was it ever. The four walked away from the Mystery Shack and toward town. One of the Pines would start weaving a tale of insanity only for the other to take over and finish it. Some of the stories had only one narrator, such as the tale of the Manotaurs. Others, like the Summerween Trickster, were a tennis match of competing viewpoints. Winnie and Sue were content to listen, only speaking when checked on. Thanks to their leisurely pace, by the time Gravity Falls came into view the identical twins had a full overview of the Pines' summer escapades.

"Truth teeth," Sue mumbled while looking around. "I'm not sure where to go with that."

Mabel shuddered with the recollection. "Stan's mouth is one place to avoid. Ugh."

"Hey, let's go somewhere none of us have been." Dipper waved them toward a side street instead of going downtown. "The journal mentioned something about the old hospital. Some sort of weird ghosts that are supposed to haunt it."

"Wouldn't we have to break in?" Mabel squealed at his nod. "I love breaking into things! We've gotten so good at it, too." Winnie and Sue shared a confused look, but stayed quiet.

Their target was toward the hills, but not as far as the conclave of rich residents, nor as high. It took the form of a square, three-floor, concrete building missing several windows. The parking lot was cracked and riddled with grassy streaks. More than one light post was absent. All of it was surrounded by a high chain-link fence topped with barbed wire. Even the road that went by seemed abandoned, with only one or two cars going past as they walked closer. Despite the sun shining down it made for an unsettling scene.

"Dang, talk about pegging the needle on the creep-o-meter," Mabel grumbled. Her eyes went up to the fence. "How are we gonna get over this?"

Dipper frowned at the razor wire. "Let's check the back."

There wasn't anything helpful to be found in the rear. The fence was unbroken all the way around the property. Winnie and Sue were deadly silent. That wafting spark of sensation was present again, stronger than in the town, but not quite as potent as the pall over the Mystery Shack. While the Pines fussed with an entry plan, they walked off to have a private chat. "It's gathered here, too." Winnie concluded. "Did it follow us?"

"No... it doesn't feel the quite the same." Sue's eyes darted between gaps in the glass. "Let's cut the fence. They're not looking."

The blue-eyed woman was a bit surprised. "You want to go in that badly? We could just pretend to give up and come back tonight."

"No." Her tone was like steel. "Something... something about it is bothering me."

"All right."

Winnie stepped to the fence and dragged her fingertip along the links, about eye-level, for a few feet. The metal gave way to some unseen force. Sue did the same, except vertically, and in a few seconds a section drooped away to step through. "I suppose I could have done this to the dinosaurs," she admitted, looking a bit embarrassed.

"Sometimes, sister, there is no substitute for a punch." Winnie spun and called the kids with hands cupped around her mouth. "There's a hole here!"

"Sweet!" Mabel replied, running over with Dipper in tow. "Ha, beat ya to it."

"I wasn't ready," he countered with a glare. His eyes went to the hole. "Man, how did we miss this? I wonder if someone's been stealing stuff. This looks like it was cut."

His sister shrugged, skipping along after the other twins, who had already entered. "No cares given. As long as they aren't in there _now_. Then I might care."

The interior of the hospital was infinitely more dreadful. Light from outside didn't travel far, leaving the empty interior fringed by darkness. It was hard to tell much about the color scheme. All the paint was faded badly. Broken fixtures hung from the ceiling. Cracks riddled the tile floors. To fight the shadows, Dipper reached into his vest and produced a flashlight. "Good thing I always carry this around."

"Yeaaaaaah," Mabel droned, her mind clearly elsewhere. "Man. It is depressing as balls in here."

"Why do you think it was abandoned?" Winnie asked, leading them past the reception desk and toward a stairwell. A distinct pang of dread was settling in. Sue's eyes said it had hit her too.

"The journal didn't really say, just that something bad happened. So bad they built a new hospital. And everyone that came here afterward went missing." He swept the light around as they went. "Wow. I did not think this through."

"Aw, it'll be fine. There are four of us! We can deal with it." Mabel's optimism was choked by a cloud of dust as they climbed the stairs. She coughed for several seconds. "Although breathing would be a thing I'd like to do right now..."

The identical twins had run out of words. They communicated instead with touches and glances in the dim light. Both were coming to a conclusion: something _else_ was here. The sting of whatever it was saturated the musty air, though it had a different pitch than outside. As they left the stairwell and moved through the second floor, that sensation grew. Before long they ignored the Pines' conversation to focus on other voices drifting around. Soon they entered a large space. The flashlight's glow revealed it didn't have the same color scheme as everywhere else; it was pink and blue, at least where paint still existed. There were also faded balloons and bears and other images everywhere. A pungent odor hung in the air, so strong Mabel had to wave it away from her face.

"Ew, what the heck?" she complained. "What is that-" Her eyes bulged when the flashlight swept across a haphazard cluster of bones in the corner. They didn't seem kid-sized. "Uh... guys?"

"Yeah! Yeah. Oh boy." Dipper avoided shining the light on them again. "Is anyone else cold?"

"Well, duh. No windows," Mabel pointed out.

"But it's so hot outside. It should be warmer than this." He noticed the silence from their companions and shone the light at them. They were staring at the skeletal remains. "You guys still with us?"

"Something is speaking," Sue whispered. Her eyes traveled everywhere but where the kids were.

Winnie was doing much the same. "No, it's not words. What is this?"

"Wait, what? You hear something?" Mabel strained to detect sound. "All I hear is me trying to hear stuff."

Sue snapped her fingers for attention. "Hold on. Look." A tiny yellow ball of light, no bigger than a fingernail, was floating in front of her face.

"Oh! A fairy!" Mabel approached excitedly, only to frown after getting close. "Aw, it's just a ball of mystery light. Boo."

"There are more!" Dipper exclaimed, hand raised toward the ceiling. Hundreds of them floated there, looking like a swarm of fireflies in the darkness. More winked to life as they watched. "Great. Hopefully these won't make me dress up in stupid costumes. Or add me to that pile of death over there. Oh man. Please be nice ghosts. Please?"

Before Mabel could agree with him, the orbs began to coagulate. They formed a huge, wobbling sphere of light in the corner opposite of the bones. "Whoa! W-whoa..." She wilted on her feet and stumbled, along with Dipper, away from the thing. "Why do I wanna cry?"

He already was, based on the sound of his voice. "Is it doing something to us?"

Winnie and Sue, however, were stoic – at least until the double doors they'd entered through slammed shut and caused them to jump. "It certainly doesn't want us to leave," the blue-eyed woman said, her body tensing up.

"I... what's the point of even trying," Mabel droned suddenly. "I just... want to sleep."

Dipper's tone was even more gloomy. "Yeah. Let's stay here."

The massive sphere began to pulse. When Sue walked up to it, however, it ceased and grew dim. Winnie joined her a few seconds later.

"Lonely," Sue muttered. "And sad. I hear tones without words. They sound human, but what are they saying?" When the answer hit her, she let out a long, pained sigh. "Sister, these sound like children."

"Do you mean-" She matched the noise against one from a memory and slumped forward. "If they died too young, they never would have had a chance to get attached to anything. That's..." Her voice failed.

Not that the rest of her statement mattered right now. They looked back at the kids, lying on the floor and curled up. "You can't hurt us," Sue informed the glowing mass.

"It doesn't want to, it just wants to play." Mabel sounded like a robot by this point.

"They'll die here if we don't do... you know."

Winnie looked at Sue for a long time. "What if they can't keep our secret?" she asked, nodding over her shoulder.

For this, she had no answer. They stared into the yellow light, each wrangling with a set of thoughts that weighed a thousand tons. It cried out to them with a chorus both strange and familiar all at once. Their faces might have been blank, but those voices battered their hearts with an inconceivable sadness – a sadness borne of actions they would have moved mountains to forget.

Sue finally found the strength to reply. Her fingers curled up into tight fists as the sphere began to pulse again. "I don't care. There will be no more blood on my hands. I'd rather they live and shout it from the rooftops than allow them to die in ignorance."

"Very well." Their stances became more martial as the light moved towards them. "Time to throw away our leashes for a while."


	4. Slippery Slope

Like a massive drop of molten gold, it flowed around their bodies. Despite the light, however, there was precious little warmth. Once the twins were engulfed its sound got much clearer – at least in volume. The noise was still little more than indecipherable babble.

Moving was difficult, but they were still in sight of each other and felt no need to struggle. "I don't think it knows how to speak," Sue pointed out. "It's too young. Can you make out anything?"

"Not really. All the voices I've heard actually know the language." Her hand swept through the glow, leaving smoky eddies in its wake. As time passed, she gathered one thing at least: "It's – no, _they're_ scared and confused. I wonder if anyone's tried talking to them before."

"Mrm." A strange haze was forming in her mind as she tried to decipher their speech. "Harsh light. A smile. Pain?"

Winnie waded over and shook her gently. "The laments of those who died too young. It's so raw. And cloudy. I'm used to seeing it sparkle."

"It never had a chance to clear up, I guess." She peered through the golden fog and into the room beyond. "No windows. I wonder... I wonder how many of them ever saw the sun?"

The blob shuddered with a tone that seemed to warble as much as its shape. With some odd form of desperation, it slashed around them as if trying to deliver an embrace. The air seemed to freeze. Dipper and Mabel emitted a pained groan that was almost lost in the aether. "Sister, we have to kill it," Winnie advised sadly. "Or it'll kill them."

Her eyes grew wide with horror. "No! They're been through enough! Can't you hear their pain? Their... they are _so_ confused. They were happy and then it was dark."

"Then let's put them out of their misery."

The wobbly glow let rip with a guttural cry of terror, whose pitch changed to anger. It threw itself against them forcefully, repeatedly, but could not make their sturdy bodies yield. In a flash it retreated to the corner and curled up upon itself. It looked roughly like a bean.

"There has to be a better way," Sue demanded. Tears clung to her cheeks. "I don't think it knows what's doing."

Winnie looked over as the Pines cried out again, then up at the ceiling. She left Sue there and launched herself at the doors, shoulder first. They flew open. "I think you might be right. It's just a big... baby." The blob, wailing, tried to slam them shut again, but her powerful arms stopped it. "It's weak. But so are they."

Sue nodded as she went over to check the young twins. They drew ragged, sporadic breaths. Both were weeping. "I don't think they can take the sad."

"Or the effect of the... ghost, I suppose you'd call it. I don't want to kill it any more than you, but..." An idea suddenly struck. "Wait. Let's make it a deal."

Her sister's head tilted as she rolled Dipper onto his side. "Huh?"

Winnie had no time to look at her; her eyes were squarely on the quivering yellow spirit. "Let us have them. I'll show you the sun. I'll let you out of here."

"It probably doesn't even understand us!" Sue yelled.

However, the light dimmed and unfurled, becoming a ball again as it floated over to Winnie. She turned to it, allowing the doors to close behind her. "You can't find your way. You're afraid of the dark." Her gentle hand ran over its surface as she spoke. "I wonder if the dark is what took you?"

Sue let her head hang low. "We're scaring it. I bet we're not the first it's tried to interact with and hurt. Probably by accident."

"You could be right," she agreed, then addressed the light again. "We mean you no harm." Winnie's voice was nearly a whisper. "Sue, take them outside. I might have to bring the building down to keep my promise."

"Okay. Please be careful." Sue gathered up the Pines, who were like feathers in her arms, and approached the doors. They opened for her. "I guess you really do understand!" She paused in the doorway and flashed a smile at the ghost. "It'll be all right. My sister will make sure." And she was gone, her footsteps scraping as she moved over the faded linoleum.

Winnie sighed as the doors closed again. "I'd better give her a few minutes," she decided, using her phone as a stopwatch. The sphere, pulsing gently, now floated around the room in a curious fashion. "Tone is everything when dealing with kids. I guess I learned a few things after all." To kill the seconds – and to keep her ethereal companion calm – Winnie kept on talking. "My sister and I have been where you are, you know? Confused. Alone. Scared – of ourselves, many times. You can't figure out why you ended up like this and all you want is someone to understand. To make it better." It made a warped, but pleasant noise in response. "There's no one to make it better for us... but at least we can make it better for others." Her phone emitted a happy chirp. "Oh?" A text from Sue. "'Go for it.' Very well."

The irises of her eyes began to glow, casting a turquoise shine. Around her, the concrete reacted to _something_. Cracks raced through it, flinging sharp noises through the cold air. Whatever was hammering the structure also hit the golden blob, causing it to ripple like mercury. More instruments joined the symphony – the shrieking failure of steel rebar being pulled apart was the loudest of the bunch. The third floor fell around them as if by magic, leaving the ward without a roof. The second floor dropped shortly afterward. Winnie crouched reflexively, but her feet remained still. Muggy air raced in, beating the sunlight through the dust and haze. As soon as the puffy clouds above became visible, the golden blob emitted a thrilled squeal and shattered. A thousand points of yellow light shot up and away.

Winnie started to cough as her eyes dimmed. "And it will never be... never be dark again," she choked out slowly. Her exertions left her a bit winded. Seeing as she was on top of the pile and in no danger, she decided to catch her breath. At least, that was the idea until she heard Mabel screeching her name over the settling of the destroyed building. "Oops."

Outside, beyond the fence and the enormous column of dust, both of the Pines were yelling. "Holy moley, did I just watch somebody die?!" Mabel shouted, waving at her face with a sweater sleeve.

"Winnie!" Dipper yelled. He started through the fence, only for Sue to hold him back. "Let me go! We have to find her!"

"It's too dangerous for us," she chided him gently, then realized she needed to sound a little more worried. "Winnie! Where are you?"

"Out of my way! I'm going in!" Mabel dashed past them, a battle cry springing from her lips. It turned into a loud, surprised grunt not long after she entered the concrete haze.

Dipper and Sue exchanged a worried look. "Mabel?" the former called. "What happened?"

A chipper "Found her!" sprang from the cloud. Soon after Winnie emerged, striding along with Mabel on her shoulders. "See? No problem," the girl added with a huge grin.

"Sister!" No fakery was needed as Sue dashed over and clamped on in a hug.

Mabel dropped off to let them have their moment – a moment which she got bored with after about fifteen seconds. "Okay, we're all cool. What happened to the ghost?"

Her brother held the hole in the fence open so the ladies could get through. "Yeah, did it make you black out too?"

The identical twins shared a glance. "I was a little woozy," Winnie admitted after a brief pause. "It must have saved me from the collapse. Nothing fell on me as I ran out."

"Oh, right." Sue blinked a few times to clear her eyes. "I hope you're not mad at me for grabbing them first..."

Knowing she was formulating a ruse, the blue-eyed woman played along and shook her head. "Of course not. You had to help them."

"Speaking of which, that was a _really_ bro thing to do," Mabel interrupted, hugging Sue's leg. "You kinda ditched your own sister to get us out. I can't even handle you right now."

She issued a shrug and anxious laugh. "Oh, you couldn't walk. I wasn't going to leave you."

Dipper flashed her a huge smile. "Seriously, thank you. How were you awake to do anything, though? All I remember is mind-numbing sadness, then, I don't know. It felt like falling asleep."

Winnie managed a half-smirk as she lead the group back toward the street. "Like I said, Sue was always the optimist. She probably encouraged herself to get up." Sirens in the distance got her attention. "We'd better get back." A glance over the shoulder revealed her twin welding the fence back together with a fingertip. "And avoid being caught."

"Woo! Fugitives!" Mabel's hands went to the sky, then dropped almost as fast. "Wait, no. We didn't do anything but break in. Buuuuut that's still a crime." Up they went again. "Woo! Fugitives!"

"You know, if we go to jail we'll end up with Gideon." Dipper snickered at the look of sheer horror on her face. "I agree about going home. There's a twenty percent chance Stan will notice we're not around."

"Boo. Fine, I guess we gotta use the adrenaline from poking death in the nose _somehow_."

Off they went, down the hill and back toward Gravity Falls. The sisters lagged behind a few feet to have a semi-private chat. "Our lie might be enough for them, but I still have questions," Sue muttered unhappily.

Winnie's response was almost cold. "Mm. Knowing what you know already, do you really want answers?"

The ever-present tingle that plague them made her brow furrow. "I... I don't know. Maybe some things are best left buried." Her hand swept about randomly. "Like... you know."

"No. I can't let that one go." Her next few steps were slower. More listless. "There are many things I can't let go. Besides, if it exists here... what if there's someone like us, too?"

Such a thought made Sue's heart skip. "Maybe, but let's talk about this later." Curious looks from Mabel up ahead were what caused her to kill the conversation.

The trip back was slower. Mabel and Dipper's lungs had ingested a sizable amount of destroyed hospital, leaving them breathless halfway into the forest. The other twins hoisted them up onto their shoulders for the remainder of the journey. As the Mystery Shack came into view, they saw a huge crowd surrounding the silver Lamborghini.

"How can they still be taking pictures of my car?" Winnie grumbled. "We've been gone for hours."

Just past the crush, Grunkle Stan was standing in a literal pile of money. His gleeful cackles filled the air. Dipper rolled his eyes at the sight, moaning "Oh boy. Looks like your ride just became a museum exhibit."

"Is that so? Well, the museum is about to close."

They shed their young cargo and approached the crowd. Before trying to push through it, however, they turned around to say goodbyes. "Today was... fun? I'm not sure how to qualify what happened," Sue laugh awkwardly. "I'm glad everyone turned out okay."

Winnie's smile was even at best. "Yes. Next time, let's visit something that won't try to crush us." The woman tossed up a wave and disappeared into the crowd.

"Byeeeeee!" Mabel yelled, jumping in place and waving madly. "Thanks for saving us from certain death!"

Dipper shouted too, but remained on the ground. "Yeah, next time I'll try thinking my tour selection through, 'cause uh. Not my proudest moment."

A mechanical roar scattered the tourists. The silver beast made a tight circle in the yard to point its nose at the path, then departed with a scream and a cloud of dust. Stan took control, directing everyone into the gift shop. "Hey, kids! Do me a favor and move this cash indoors!" he yelled, following the suckers inside.

"Fine, fine." Dipper shed his cap and examined the money as they walked over. "We're gonna need a wheelbarrow for this. Or a dump truck. How much was he charging them?" No reply came. He looked over to see Mabel stuffing bills down her sweater. The smile on her face said it all – she was deep in thought. "Earth to Mabel Pines? Helloooo?"

Their eyes suddenly met, but her vapid grin was frozen solid. "They're lying through their teeth," she stated flatly. "I'm the happiest person I know and that room made me hate breathing." She started to cough. "I mean for reasons other than dust," she added painfully, pounding her chest.

"Oh, come on. So they were lucky enough to not get knocked out by the ghost. And Winnie was lucky enough to avoid every single piece of a collapsing building." He dropped the cash in his hands while mentally recapping what he just said. "Wait. If I had that kind of luck I'd be-

She knew exactly where he was going and cut him off. "-rich enough to drive a Lamborghini? Dip, I think they've got some sort of gift. What if they're like, a Gideon that's not a complete and total fraud? What if they're _Bill _but human-shaped?!"

Dipper wiped the sweat off his brow and frowned. "Okay, whoa up on the Bill comparison. I don't think there's anything else on this planet like him. As for the other... they've been pretty nice to us so far. I mean, saving our lives and stuff has to count for something."

"True, yeah, but Gideon was super nice to me too and we ended up with a lobster and a giant murderbot." She looked down upon realizing how stuffed her sweater was. "You've been a mope since Stan took the journal. Let's go do some independent Mystery Twin investigating!"

He slumped a bit. "I can't decide if I hate that name or not." Mabel was still beaming hopefully as he looked back up. "Oh, fine. What's the worst that could hap—never mind. I don't want an answer."

"Woohoo! I'm gonna go make some more fake IDs!"

"Great. Can it wait until morning, though?" He rubbed at his chest, grimacing with discomfort. "We need to sleep off the asthma."

* * *

They spent the rest of that day planning an approach. Mabel's idea – asking them directly – won out, because it was the simplest and their bodies and minds were still recovering from almost getting killed. Just after breakfast the next day, they prepared to move out.

"'Dear Grunkle Stan'," she dictated to herself. "'Dipster and I are going to go con some people and make you proud. We will be gone for a while. Love, Mabel.'" She taped the note to the cash register and grinned. "How's that sound?"

He shrugged at her. "Good enough for me."

"Awesome." Her tongue stuck out with concentration as she replaced every dot on every I with a little heart. "Okay. Let's do this."

Wendy rolled in on her bike just as the twins got outside. "What's up, guys? You hear about the old hospital collapsing? Freaky stuff, man."

Mabel replied in a single breath as they walked past. "We sure did and also had absolutely nothing to do with it whatsoever! We're going to town to do stuff good luck with the register bye!"

"Uh... okay? Have fun I guess?" Wendy blinked and waved, watching them jog away.

Dipper rolled his eyes after there was some distance between them and the teenager. "Wow. Stan levels of smoothness there, Mabel."

"Shut up, it's early and my brain is full of asbestos."

Thanks to the cool morning air, the process of getting to Gravity Falls was pleasant, if slow. The streets weren't quite deserted, but only the restaurants and a couple of shops were open. The smells wafting around from the former were making Dipper hungry. "Man. Did you keep any of that money? I'm dying for some food." He winced. "I really should not have said 'dying'."

"Nope." Mabel patted her tummy unhappily. "Eh, Winnie and Sue will feed us. Probably something really, really healthy." The mental image of tofu made her shoulders drop. "Aw, man. I want a sausage biscuit, not flavorless soybean sponges."

Some minutes later they reached the outskirts of town and the road that lead up to the wealthy neighborhood. It stretched out and up ahead of them, like a freshly paved Mount Everest. "Wow, um," Dipper swallowed. "I didn't think it was this long. Or tall."

"Of course it is. The rich folks have to be protected from poors like us." Mabel screwed up her courage and started walking. "Come on, bro. Let's burn some calories!"

Halfway up they ran into a blonde girl, decked out in full workout regalia, who was doing just that. "Oh. My gosh," Pacifica snarled, coming to an uneven halt to glare. "What are _you_ doing up here? The lame part of town is that way." She pointed angrily down the hill.

"Good morning to you too! We're going to see some friends." Mabel's cheer was strained. Dipper gave her a worried glance.

Pacifica burst out laughing. It seized her so completely that she doubled over, then sat roughly on the sidewalk and gasped for air. "Friends! Up here! Oh, that is – pardon the pun – rich. What, did Grenda eat a bank vault?"

"Hey! She can't help her outsized skeletal structure." That only caused another round of laughing. "You don't believe me? Come on. I'll _show_ you_."_

"Uh, Mabel, maybe we shouldn't bring her along. They might not like the—mmhph!" he yelped as she slapped a hand over his mouth.

"I am in no mood. She started it, I'm gonna finish it," she explained lowly before turning back to the blonde. "Prepare to eat ostrich!"

Pacifica cocked a brow. "It's crow, you dork."

"Whatever!"

But she did tag along, lagging behind the twins as Mabel stormed up the hill. A helpless Dipper was only along for the ride. The homes only got more lavish the higher they went. Once at the top, they saw the silver Lamborghini parked in one of the driveways. "Yeah! There we go!" she shouted, running ahead.

"I better not get arrested for this," Pacifica growled.

Sue was on the front porch, mug in hand as she watched them approach. "Oh dear. Sister!" she yelled back at the open door. "We have visitors!"

Winnie stepped out a few moments later. The kids had just reached the steps. "Oh. Mabel. Dipper. And..." Her head cocked as she regarded Pacifica. "You."

"You cannot be serious," the blonde muttered, dumbfounded. "You know them? By name?"

Sue poured on the happiness after taking a drink from her mug. "Sure, they're our friends!"

"From way downtown," Mabel whispered, her arms up like she'd really taken a basketball shot. "Bang!"

The blonde refused to be defeated. "Well, that's... hiiiiiii!" Her voice suddenly dripped with smug confidence. "I'm Pacifica Northwest. Pleasure to make your acquaintance." The identical twins had baffled looks as she shook their hands. "My family owns the mud flap factory, the saw mill, the hydroelectric plant, the... aha, we may as well own all of central Oregon!" At her urging, everyone looked toward the sports car. "Mmm, love the ride. If your taste in cars means anything, we're gonna be _good_ friends."

"I feel the need to apologize," Dipper interjected with a hand raised. He shrank when both girls glared at him. "Okay, we're still fighting. Uh... Winnie? Sue? Help me."

The blue-eyed woman nodded for him to follow. "What are you doing here?" She glanced at her twin, who also came in with them.

"We've got a few-" Shouting from outside stopped him for a minute. "Wow, she wasn't kidding about not being in the mood. Anyway, we wanted to ask you a few questions."

"Oh?" If Winnie were feeling pressure, it didn't show. "About what?"

"You."

The women looked at him with unreadable eyes. "Are we really that interesting?" Sue blurted out cheerfully. "Then again, I guess we do come off as rather mysterious."

"Mm." Winnie couldn't add anything more before Mabel flung the door open and walked in. "Who was that girl?"

She threw up her arms and walked to the couch. "Oh, just a _complete_ bi-"

Dipper nearly threw himself at her in terror. "Mabel!"

"Right. My bad."

He heaved a sigh of relief. "Anyway. We think – and trust me, there is plenty of precedence for this stuff around here – you guys had something to do with what happened yesterday. Not bringing the building down, of course! Just... we feel there's some weirdness going on here."

Mabel tacked on a sage nod. "Trust us. We _know_ weird. If there's something you wanna tell us, don't be scared! It probably won't even be in the top one hundred strangest things we've heard this month."

"I think you two have wild imaginations," Winnie decided, crossing her arms. "What could we have had to do with anything? We were following _you_ around."

Sue poked her in response to the accusatory tone. "Easy, sister. Let's not have an argument. Another argument."

"I'm not trying to start one."

Dipper shed his cap and set it on the coffee table. "Neither are we. Look. You're uncomfortable here because you're new. I get that. And maybe, just maybe, you're... special. A little different. You said you heard voices in the hospital. Is that it? Can you guys talk to ghosts?"

Mabel chimed in with a grand smile. "We can talk to ghosts too! I mean the ones that possess you and make your brother do the... pffff." A sharp glare from him couldn't stifle the snort. "Sorry, bro. It is literally the best blackmail material of all time."

"Getting back to the point," he grumbled through clenched teeth, "If something's up, there's no need to hide it. We won't talk."

Again, she smiled enormously. "Yeah! Also if you're lying, I'll know. Just a heads up."

The other twins remained silent, apparently feeling the issue out with each other. Mabel and Dipper, knowing this, were just as quiet while Winnie and Sue shared a spectrum of expressions and faint gestures. The red-eyed woman spoke at last. "Maybe it couldn't hurt."

At first, Winnie's face screwed up with disapproval. Eventually, though, her disdain softened. "Being truthful did work once before..."

Sue wrapped her up in a gentle hug. "There's no need to fight them. We have enough to worry about." They nodded at each other. "Okay. Yes. We understood the ghosts."

"Knew it!" Mabel yelled with a fist pump. She wilted under their looks, which ranged from annoyed for Dipper to blank for Winnie. "Oh, sorry. Have you always been able to? Chat with dead folks, I mean." Now the twins' expressions, especially Sue's, punched her right in the heart. "Oh. Uh... sorry. I didn't mean to be... Dipper, you do the talking."

He shook his head. "Good idea. Has it always been like this for you guys?"

Hollowness had set in on Winnie's face. It made them uncomfortable. "Yes. The voices of the dead have been something we've struggled with for... forever." Her brow raised at a series of sympathetic noises and faces from Mabel. Dipper nudged her in the side to stop them.

"The ghosts at the hospital didn't really speak words. Just sounds. We think they were children," Sue added quietly. "Too weak to hurt us. Not too weak to hurt you."

He rubbed his chin, putting the pieces together. "So that's why you guys didn't pass out. But... Winnie, why did you stay behind? Why did the building fall?"

She looked away, slumping back against the couch. "I was trying to talk to it. To find out what happened. As for the building, I don't know. I'm just glad I got out in time."

Mabel had been making fun of her brother's contemplative looks until now. "Huh. This really is a mystery," she chirped. "Let's investigate!"

"Maybe later," he denied. Something in the identical twins' demeanor was uncomfortable, and he thought it best not to push any further. "Can I be blunt for a second? We're really hungry. Which one of you is the cook?" He was stunned when Winnie raised her hand. "Whoa. I didn't see that one coming."

"I'm the best of a bad pair," she clarified with a grin. "Sister, come help me in the kitchen."

Sue was cheerful again. "Okay!" They rose and moved out of the living room, a happy chant of 'breakfast!' following them all the way. Their kitchen was full of spotless appliances – too spotless. Instead of searching the cabinets for ingredients, the twins stood near the stove and stared out the door. Fortunately, the arrangement of the living room prevented the Pines from seeing anything. "Well. How are we going to feed them?"

Winnie crossed her arms. "We can just lie again and say we forgot to buy groceries. Take one of them into town for some fast food. I know the places well enough. Besides, being in a Lamborghini is apparently quite a 'big deal'."

"I guess. So, what? Are we easing them into this?"

"To an extent. There are some things they _can't_ know." The air grew heavy again. "I agree with you. We have to tread carefully – even if it annoys me. I still need to know what that _feeling_ is."

Sue's eyes went back to the doorway. The Pines were having an excited conversation about what to eat. "Let's see if they can help. I mean, based on their adventures so far..."

"Right." Her blue eyes narrowed for an instant. "I hope we can find some way to keep them from paying a price for it."


	5. 6-18-1963

"Thank you! Come again! Don't worry about the flies in the creamsicle! Bugs are supposed to be full of protein so they're probably good for you!"

Dipper retched a bit at the thought of the ice cream bar he'd just seen get eaten. The young boy had powered through it with reckless abandon – and based on the surprised look he had while getting dragged out the door, Mabel's goodbye was the first indication of something being amiss. "Uh, I don't think he knew."

Mabel spun unsteadily on the stool, broadcasting her indomitable cheer with a few giggles. "Who cares. We got their money."

His face dropped with surprise. "Wow. You're becoming more like Stan every day, you know that?"

"I do, and I'm not sure how okay I am with it."

"Heh." For a moment he busied himself with arranging hats on the shelves. "Man. I think I might feel sorry for Winnie and Sue."

Mabel stopped spinning and latched onto the counter with both hands. "Huh? Oh yeah! They're like Bruce Willis in that movie. But prettier!"

"Riiiiight. You think they were lying to us about those hospital ghosts? They seemed bothered about it." Deep in thought, he wandered over to the register. "Really bothered." A burgeoning grin from his sister made him blink. "What?"

She hopped off the stool and walked around. "I know that look, Dip. You wanna dig up what happened. Let's do it! I mean, they were nice enough to save our lives, not to mention go buy us breakfast. Giving them some answers about the place is the least we could do."

"Yeah. Yeah!" He stuffed a sudden cloud of dread into the back of his mind and tried to ignore it. "Where would we start?"

Another tremendous smile split Mabel's face. "I bet Google knows!"

"Pfff—you know what, though, that's not a bad idea. Let's head to the library." Pain in his legs stopped him after a few steps. "Ow. Ow. Agh! Forget walking. Let's grab the cart. My calves are _dead_."

Noon had turned the air into invisible soup. Within seconds of exposure, both of them were sweating. Thick clouds to the west promised relief – but they were too dark to just be holding rain. Around the side of the house was the golf cart, parked under a window with Soos examining something in the rear. Upon noticing the Pines he raised up and waved with a wrench in his hand. "'Sup, dudes? You guys look like you're on a mission."

"Yes! A Mystery Twins investigation is happening _right now_!" Mabel confirmed, her words soaked in drama. Nature reinforced her mock seriousness with a puff of wind to lift her hair majestically. "Please tell me that's not broken. We need it to be awesome."

"Nah, just puttin' in a new battery." He wiped his brow with a satisfied sigh. "What's going on this time? UFOs? Bigfoot? Did Gideon bust outta the big house?"

Dipper's face screwed up with the last option. "Don't even joke. We're just doing some, uh, historical research for those new girls."

Soos nodded sagely, staring off into the distance at something neither of the Pines could determine – even by looking themselves. "Oho! The _other _mysterious twins of Gravity Falls. I've heard things about them. Mysterious things."

Figuring this was another example of the town applying harmless speculation to something, the Pines shared a smile. "Oh yeah? Like what?" Dipper asked, folding his arms.

Suddenly it was the handyman who was melodramatic. "They say that Winnie chick paid for their house with... _gooooooold._"

His wiggly-fingered, bug-eyed embellishment had little effect. Dipper shook his head. "Dude, you've seen their car. That thing cost more than this house. People that rich probably have precious metals lying around in closets or something."

"And ponies! And butlers. Butler ponies!" Reality quashed Mabel's glee. "Aw, but we didn't see any. Maybe they haven't hired one yet." She eyed Soos expectantly. "Is that all you got? Come on, man. Hit us with the good stuff!"

Soos gave her a shrug and went back to work on the cart, which only entailed shutting the engine cover. "Nope, I'm empty. Wendy says you need a week or so for solid gossip to happen. Like a plant that grows and bears delicious rumor fruit."

Dipper's face went blank as he slipped behind the wheel. "Rumor fruit. Um. Sure. You wanna come along?"

"Alas, no. My healing powers are needed on the roof." He took on a heroic pose, but the wind offered him no assistance. "Worry not, shingles. Soos hears your call."

Mabel gave him a hearty pat on the back before she joined her brother in the cart. "Go get 'em! We'll probably be back before Stan notices we're gone." Her face also went blank. "Uh, wait, that could be days. Just... we'll be home before dinnertime." They returned his wave as Dipper started to drive. "By the way, if the library falls on us I will punch you _directly_ in the face."

"Heh, sorry." Despite his laugh and smile, something visibly gnawed at his soul. His eyes remained straight ahead.

And she jumped it on it the moment she noticed. "Whoa. What's up?" A flurry of pokes was thrown at him – anything to make that expression vanish. "You're freaking me out man!"

"Stop, stop!" he complained, lightly smacking her hand away. "I'm... oh, what's the point of lying. The journal entry about the hospital is bothering me." His next glance revealed Mabel with her hands in her lap and a pleasant smile; this was her classic 'I'm _really _listening' pose. "You know how most of the entries are really detailed? This one just wasn't. All it had was something terrible happening, the place closing, then vague secondhand reports about ghosts. I don't get it."

Her head cocked. "I wonder why?"

"You got me. I hope we figure out something, though. They deserve an answer."

Imitating him, she grabbed onto the dashboard and glared ahead. "Time to get serious." A few beats passed before she burst out laughing. "I'm sorry bro, I can't do it for more than like eight seconds straight."

With a smile, he rolled his eyes. "I'll handle the serious."

The newest of the public buildings in town, the Gravity Falls Public Library was a jumbled collection of architectural styles. It featured a few sparsely placed columns out front holding up a roof line that was flat as a board and looked totally out of place. As Dipper parked the cart, the sun retreated behind a wall of menacing gray. "Looks like we might be in here for a while," he noted, eyes on the sky as they went up the steps. Something about the atmosphere was tense, but he chalked it up to the approaching weather.

His sister's expression lacked enthusiasm until a thought perked her up. "Bleh. Hey... you think they have books about knitting?"

"I don't know, maybe. Go see. I'll be at the computers." He watched for a moment as she darted off, excited noises trailing her steps. With Mabel gone his worry began to bloom. The sum of what he knew – despite its paucity – made a cold knot form in his stomach. A heavy dose of willpower was necessary to get him over to the computer area and make him sit. "Why am I so nervous? It's just a Google search." Anxious fingers began to poke at the keyboard. "Let's see... 'Gravity Falls General Hospital'."

The results page was topped by stories about the collapse. He expected that, scrolled down, and clicked on through the results. Four pages were yesterday's news. "Gotta be something here. Gotta be... gotta—huh?" One link caught his eye; comprised simply of a date, it stood out like a sore thumb against everything else. "6/18/1963?" Curious, he clicked it and landed on a clearly unfinished website. The font and sparse graphics screamed late 1990s – in fact, the whole thing looked like something Soos would have built. Besides the date, again listed at the top, were the words 'never forget', a lot of pictures of the hospital in a much newer-looking condition, and a black ribbon at the bottom of the page. All of his focus went to deciphering it. "What the heck is-" A sharp jab to the ribs nearly made him faint. "-aaaaaaaahh! What the—Mabel!" he growled, glowering at her as she snickered. "You scared the heck out of me!"

"Hee hee, sorry bro. I can't resist a soft target." She thumbed over to the entrance. "Can we go back and get the truck? I found like four hundred books about sewing and those babies are _all_ coming home with me."

Irritated with the way she had shattered his concentration, he waved at the monitor. "No! No. Look at this."

"What?" Her face screwed up as she processed it. "And you tell _me_ I'm bad at the internet. What is this thing?"

"It's some kind of memorial. All I really got out of it is a date – June 18, 1963. That wasn't even in the journal."

"Wow. It's all black and creepy." Her eyes lit up. "Hey, I saw a bunch of newspapers in a room while I was looking for fun stuff to knock over. I wonder how far back they go."

"Let's find out. Lead the way." Dipper gave chase as she weaved through the shelves. He knew instantly when they had arrived. The air had a different odor. "Wow. This smells like our aunt's house."

"I know, right? What is it with old people and newspapers?" Mabel walked over to one rack and carefully examined a copy of the _Gravity Falls Dispatch_. "I got April 12, 1993."

Dipper went to the one on her left and did the same. "This one's from November 17, 1996. I think we need to go the other way."

Every new rack took them farther back in time, until near the rear of the room they finally found themselves in the 1960s. The light from the single large window on the wall above them receded until the fluorescent tubes in the ceiling were brighter. Distant rumbles filtered through the ceiling. "Ooo! I'm in 1964!" Mabel blurted out suddenly.

He came over to help her rifle through the sheets. "December 1963... almost there." His hands flew about with surprising haste. "August, July... June! What day was the 18th?"

She yielded to his fervor, stepping back with a yawn. "Are you serious? I don't even know what today is."

"Oh. I've been there a few times this week." Wide-eyed, he shuffled on. "The 19th! So that means..." However, the next date he saw was the 17th. Confused, he flipped back and forth a few times. "Uh. It's not here."

"Whaaaa?" Mabel stared at the papers, headed cocked with confusion. "Where is it?"

"No clue, but I don't like it. Come on, maybe the lady at the desk knows something." Dipper was in front this time as they made the trip back. The librarian behind the desk, a youngish woman with long walnut hair and glasses, regarded them with a smile as they approached. "Excuse me, miss? We're looking for a copy of the _Gravity Falls Dispatch_ from June 18th, 1963 but we can't find it on the rack. Was there an edition printed for that day?"

Ghostly changes to her expression occurred, but only Mabel noticed them as they happened. She gave her brother a much gentler nudge as the librarian answered, still smiling, "Yes, but we don't have that date in the archives. I'm sorry." And that was it, besides an equally wooden "Can I help you with anything else?" tacked on a few seconds later.

"Uh, no," Dipper denied, picking up the odd vibes from his sister. "Thanks anyway." He knew something was wrong when she followed him back outside with no resistance. "Now _you're_ freaking me out. What's going on?"

"She knows, bro." Thunder ripped through the air, bouncing off every wall and window on the block, but Mabel stayed her ground. "This is starting to bother me too. What did we miss?"

Terrified by the noise, he only answered her after rising from his defensive, crouched position. "Again, no clue. We need some other source of information. Who do we know that would be old enough to remember 1963?"

"Hrm. Grunkle Stan for sure. Lazy Susan?" She nodded at his skeptical look. "Yeah, never mind. Uh, who else?" Her eyes went up and down the sidewalk until, suddenly, they came to rest on Old Man McGucket. "Hey!" she pointed. "He's super old!"

"Huh?" Dipper rubbed his eyes and groaned after seeing him. "That's not really what I had in mind." It was too late; Mabel was already hopping down the steps in pursuit. "Hey! Wait!"

"Wait a second, old guy!" she yelled after him. "You remember the 60s, right? You've gotta be at least that old."

With a stilted cackle and wave, he turned around. "Are you kiddin'? I'm so old they built this town around me!"

"Perfect! What does June 18th, 1963 mean to you?"

It was like popping a balloon. McGucket wilted with a long, low groan and turned his back to walk away without another word. He was so slumped over his knuckles almost dragged on the concrete.

"Whoa," Dipper murmured, walking over to her. "What was _that_ about?"

For once, she looked just as serious as he did. "Something is effed up, Dipper." The abrupt splattering of a few fat raindrops on the street broke their reverie. "Uh oh. Let's pick this up where it's dry. How fast does the cart go again?"

He looked at the distant trees as they swayed firmly in the wind. "There's no point in trying to drive back now, we'll get soaked regardless." Instead, they hunkered down in the relative safety of the library's covered front entrance to wait. "Hey, you got any quarters? There's a payphone."

"Nope—wait." She patted her skirt pockets. "I do! Winnie gave me her change when we went to McDonald's this morning!"

"Oh." He followed her over to the payphone. "How was the ride, by the way? You never said."

"_Loud_!" Mabel struggled a bit with inserting quarters and dialing the Mystery Shack. "Hello!" she chirped the moment it picked up, interrupting Wendy's attempt to greet her. "Wow. Did you really just answer the phone?"

"Hey! I do _some_ stuff around here, man." The redhead's anger was purely facetious. "What's up? Where'd you guys go this time?"

Mabel shot a glance at Dipper, then looked back at the rainfall. "Oh, nowhere, we're just at the library. Is Grunkle Stan around?"

"Nah, he took a tour group in about five minutes ago. You got the cart? I couldn't find it earlier."

"Yep. Frack. Guess we'll have to go chase a bus and come back for the cart later." With a tiny, curious 'hmm' she added a question. "Say, does June 18th, 1963 mean anything to you?"

"Uh. No." Wendy's tone betrayed otherwise; after a few seconds she seemed to admit its obviousness with a sigh, but kept up the charade. "Nope. Not a thing."

As much as Mabel wanted to explode with a furious 'really?!', she kept her cool for Dipper's sake – and for Wendy's. "I'm suspicious," she replied, adding just a touch of venom.

"Why? I got nothing, man. That was like, fifty years ago."

She put her free hand on her hip and glared daggers. "Fffffffine. Tell Stan we'll be back as soon as it stops raining."

"Okay. See ya."

Dipper watched her hang up and waited for the other half of the conversation to be divulged. He already knew who it was based on Mabel's surprise. "Wendy, right? What just happened?"

"She knows something too. And if she knows, everybody knows." They blankly stared into the downpour for a moment. "Now if only somebody would talk."

"Fat chance of that. You know what they say about small towns." A building on the far end of the street attracted his attention, but it only managed to put a scowl on his face after he realized what it was. "Oh boy. There's the Dusk 2 Dawn."

"Huh, yeah." Mabel stared at it for ages before a light bulb went off. "Heeey... I bet I know _someone_ who'd talk to us."

Dipper's eyes nearly shot out of his head. "Wh—no. Mabel. No. No no no. I am not going back in there!" he countered, hands motioning wildly. "No! What if they possess you again? What if they make me-"

"Welllllllll, who wants a lamby lamby lamby?" she sung, hardly able to manage words due to the giggles. "Come on, bro, it's just a dance. Small price to pay for info."

He crossed his arms and tried to dismiss the embarrassed blush clinging to his cheeks. "I don't care. The only way I'd go in there again is with help. Maybe if Soos were here. Or Grenda. Or Winnie and Sue."

"Yes, if only we were with you!"

The Pines yelped with surprise and whirled to find the identical twins leaning against the wall on the other end of the covered area. Sue was the one who had broken their silence. Both women were dressed in workout clothes – knee-length pants, sneakers, and tank tops that differed in color depending on who wore them. Winnie's outfit was mostly black and blue, while Sue's was mostly red and silver. Gym bags were at their feet. Their hair was wet – from sweat or rain, it was difficult to tell. "Sorry," the red-eyed woman added. "We didn't want to interrupt."

"Oh..." Mabel wheezed, a hand on her chest. "Geez, Dip, is this what I've been doing to you all these years?"

"Yeah. Not much fun, is it." He lead her over to them. "How'd you end up out here?"

Winnie cast a sideways look at her twin. "Exercise. We warmed up with a run, and after we got finished we decided to run back home. We saw you up here and decided to say hello."

Dipper cocked his head in surprise. "Running? In a _thunderstorm_?"

Sue chuckled a little and flexed for good measure. "As if the weather's ever stopped us before. Did you need something?"

Mabel covered Dipper's mouth with her hand to stop him from saying no. "Yeah! We wanna go to the Dusk 2 Dawn to talk to the ghosts about what happened at the hospital 'cause Dipper wanted to know why so he could tell you guys but everybody's being super weird about the whole thing," she explained in one breath, lightly struggling with her brother all the way through to keep him quiet.

Winnie lead her sister toward the steps so they could see the place in question. "Oh. Didn't Wendy say to stay away?"

"Yes! Yes she did!" Dipper yelled, pulling away from Mabel's interference. "Don't pay her any mind! We'll handle this some other way!"

"I want to know," Sue murmured to her twin, eyes locked on the decrepit building.

That was all Winnie needed to hear. "We're in," she said over her shoulder to the Pines. "Hop on our backs. We'll get there faster."

"Are you insane?!" Dipper yelled. Sue hefted him up and gave him no choice to grab on. "I cannot believe this is actually happening."

"Woo! Hi ho, Winnie, away!" Mabel yelled jokingly from her new perch – but then the twins took off down the steps. "Okay uh, wow, you're actually really fast."

She was understating things a little. They tore down the sidewalk at breakneck speed, barreling toward the fence ahead. As with the hospital, razor wire running along the top presented an issue – at least to Dipper. "Oh, great, more barbed wire—whoa! Sue! What the heck?!" The identical twins scaled the fence like spiders, curling and bending over the prickly protection with admirable grace. They dropped down the other side and jogged to the entrance, where the Pines dismounted. Winnie tried the doors and found them unlocked.

"You guys considered trying out for the Olympics?" Mabel asked, grinning wildly as she squeezed water out of her sweater.

"Mmm." Winnie's mind was on other things as she examined the interior. "Where are the ghosts?"

"Dang it, if you're here to rob us I swear..." an angry voice boomed. The spirit of Pa Duskerton swooped down from the ceiling and hovered over them with a disgusted look. "Oh, it's the girly boy. Come to dance for us some more?" He laughed heartily until his wife flew up to float with him. "No. Really. Why are you bothering us again? The blasted weather is bad enough." He glared at the identical twins. "And who are these _teenagers_?"

"Excuse me, but we're twenty-two!" Sue retorted, eyes full of disdain – at least until she smiled. "Thanks for the compliment, though."

"Okay okay okay." Dipper moved to the front of the pack in order to take charge. "Listen, we're sorry to bother you, but-"

"They're dripping all over my floor!" Ma Duskerton interjected, crossing her arms.

"-yes! Yes we are and I promise we'll mop up... uh, ourselves in a minute. We just need to..." Dipper's eyes hardened. "6/18/1963. Something happened. We want to know what. Uh... please. Also please don't make me dance and/or commandeer my sister's body again, if you wouldn't mind."

The Duskertons were in no mood to do either, based on their suddenly gloomy demeanor. They drifted to the floor in a light embrace. "Oh. Oh my," the old lady groaned. "It looks like even death can't separate us from that awful day." Her face screwed up as she eyed Winnie and Sue. "Speaking of... you _smell_ like death, dears."

Winnie's reply was as blunt as a sledgehammer. "Forget about us. You were saying?"

"That was the day old Dr. Seifert was brought up on murder charges," Pa Duskerton explained. "Two hundred some-odd babies died by his hand at the General Hospital. Been doin' it for nearly two decades, or so the district attorney said. He told the town council time after time it was the Northwest factory polluting the river. Causing birth defects. That slime! Who knows how many kids he _really _killed. Thank goodness they locked him up."

His wife nodded sadly. "Oh yes. A hundred and six consecutive life terms, but it was too late. The 18th of June, my dears, was the day Gravity Falls died."

Stunned silence ruled the air for several moments, broken only in spurts by thunder and the striking of rain on the roof. "I... _wow_," Mabel finally sniffled, on the precipice of bursting into tears.

Out of respect, Dipper shed his hat and stared at the floor. "How could they hide something like this for so long?"

Ma Duskerton had the answer. "Hurt too much to talk about. It's a bitter struggle to make pain like that fade. Every time it gets brought up again your hard work is ruined. Folks try to forget. They hope, eventually, the questions will stop getting asked. Just about all they _can_ do," she concluded, giving the young twins a ghostly pat on the shoulder. The older pair, standing behind them, received a quizzical expression. Winnie seemed more resigned than anything. Sue's face was hidden by her hand. "You two must be new. I'm sorry you had to hear this."

"So am I," the blue-eyed woman muttered. "Sister?"

Sue had managed to hide her reaction until her voice gave it away – she was weeping behind her fingers. "Give me a minute."

A deeper silence fell; it had stopped raining. "I think I wanna go home," Mabel decided. "I feel like I just got stomped on. Man." She still had enough sense to give Winnie and Sue a hug. Dipper did the same. "We're so sorry. We were... we were only trying to help."

"We're not mad at you," Sue assured, though her tone didn't inspire much confidence. As she hugged Mabel, tears streamed down her cheeks. They watched as the Pines looked out the front door. "Do you need some help getting back?"

"Allow me." Pa Duskerton hovered over and snapped his fingers. The next gust of wind caused the front gate outside to swing open. "Just lock up when you leave."

"Sure. Thanks." Dipper donned his hat again and opened the door for Mabel. He hesitated when Winnie and Sue didn't follow. "You guys coming?"

Winnie shook her head. "In a minute. You two get home before the weather gets worse."

"All right. See you."

He floated away from the entrance after the kids had gone and regarded Winnie with a curious glance. "You didn't look very surprised, young lady."

"I'm afraid it's something we're used to." Her eyes darted over as Sue drew in a sharp breath. "Are you stuck like the ghosts in the hospital?"

The spirits embraced again and smiled. "Oh no, no," he said. "This store was our pride and joy. We like it here."

"Oh. That's kind of reassuring." Sue wiped her eyes once more and tried to put on a smile. "We apologize for barging in. Thanks for explaining things. We knew they were children but... but not what happened." Her face dropped again. "Sister, how could we repay them?"

"Hmm." Winnie gazed at the disastrous state of the store's interior. "I have an idea."

She picked up on it right away, her eyes emitting a faint glow. "Okay." Both twins leveraged their gift to bring order to the shelves. Items flew about their heads as they walked from aisle to aisle, organizing and replacing and arranging at an inhuman pace. The whole shop was cleaned up in less than five minutes.

"How did you-" Pa Duskerton was silenced by amazement. "I thought only the departed could do that."

"Death is our life," Sue replied with a melancholy smirk. "I don't feel very good either. Let's go home." Winnie nodded and followed her sister to the door.

"Come back anytime!" Ma Duskerton said with a wave, just like she had thousands of times in life. "And welcome to Gravity Falls."

Once free of the store, they hopped the fence, grabbed their bags from the library and ran off through the drizzle. Sue didn't utter a word – she didn't have to. Winnie knew what was tumbling around in her head. Only when they were home and separated from the world did the red-eyed woman finally explode. "Children!" she yelled, motioning with clenched fists. "_Babies_!"

"I know."

"Why would someone do... I can't..." She fell on the couch and hid her face again. "Are we like that man?"

Winnie was by her side in a flash. "We're not even close."

"But we did—we did terrible things, sister. It's all coming back to me again."

The hug got tighter. "It's not coming back. It never leaves." Sue pulled away from her and stood up. "Sister?"

"I'm angry." So angry, in fact, the emotion seemed to be rippling through her muscles. "I'm going to go vent. You can keep the car. I'll just walk."

"All right. The cave?"

Sue nodded once as they went to the door. "Yes. Maybe you're right about punching stuff and putting my fists through the rock will help." The thought of having to fight more of the cave's residents drew a scowl. "I hope the lizards leave me alone. I don't want to accidentally kill another one."

"Try running away this time." Winnie hugged her again and sent her on her way. "I'll see you later." Being left alone with her own thoughts was a revolting proposition, but one she would accept if it would help Sue feel better. The rainfall grew louder as she ruminated on the couch. "The hospital and the store felt the same. Some were stuck, but some stay behind. And they have our powers. But why do we feel that same something at the Mystery Shack... and in that hole?" Linking these sensations made her slightly uncomfortable; there was simply no denying their similarity, however. Her mind frothed with questions. "Forget the vacation. I need _answers_."


	6. Offer Not Valid For Dinosaurs

The day after, and the day after that, dawned as brilliant, sunny things full of relatively cool air. And yet, Dipper and Mabel may as well have been trapped in a permanent cloud. What they'd learned from the Duskterons sat there like a chunk of ice that wouldn't melt, no matter what they tried to do. No amount of books could lift the boy from his dank fog, nor could a full-volume sleepover with Grenda and Candy help Mabel with hers. Wendy had a similar shadow in her eyes – she even admitted to them in private that her anguish was about the same story – but the handyman either didn't know or had known long enough to have some way of dealing with it. Mabel wanted to ask him which it was, but giving the awful truth a voice again was the last thing she wanted to do. Pa had been right: all the Pines wanted to do was forget. Every time they brought it up, the endeavor would fail and threaten to plunge them into an even sadder state.

Thankfully, however, there wouldn't be a choice. Stan had known all along something wasn't right, but lacked the courage to ask questions until the lunchtime tour group was out the door and he found himself in the gift shop with his great niece, great nephew, and the lazy teenager. Thirty-six hours of their awkward behavior was finally too much for him to take. "All right, that's it. Somebody better start talking," he demanded.

The kids looked to to the teenager for help. "Uh..." she whimpered shakily. "I don't know how to put it, man."

"Listen, I might be blind, selfish, and generally cranky, but I'm not dumb. I see the moping." He pointed at the redhead. "I see you doing actual work! Come on, you can talk to me. Really." Their skeptical looks made him squint. "I don't care for your tone. Expression. Whichever."

Dipper, slumped so far over his forehead rested on the counter top, was the one to break the ice. "It's the old hospital. We found out what happened there fifty years ago."

"And it _blows_," Mabel added sadly.

The old man became just as downtrodden. "Ooo. Oh. I don't know where to go with this."

"Who does?" Wendy ran a hand through her hair and sighed. "Have you been in town the past couple of days? It's tense."

Mabel shuddered. "Creepy forced old people smiles everywhere. Can't take it." She clung to Dipper fiercely. "How could someone _do_ this? I don't understand."

"You don't understand 'cause you're a decent human being." Stan moved away to put the closed sign on the door. "I remember that day. Everybody in Gravity Falls acted like you three for a month afterward. Longer, in some cases."

"How did people get past it?" Dipper asked.

"They didn't. You don't get past stuff like this. It sticks with you forever."

"No! No no no! You're supposed to say it gets better!" Mabel yelled. "I'm gonna cry again oh boy..."

"Mabel's right. I don't get how someone could... forget it. I'm just gonna end up making myself sad again." Wendy sat on the stool and leaned back. Her eyes dropped as the Pines closed on her in a haphazard hug. "Thanks, guys."

"Yeah. We know how you feel," Dipper confirmed. "Everything just... sucks."

Stan frowned as he looked over them. "Eh. You know what? Take the rest of the day off. And a couple more after that. I can't ask you three to work when you're feeling like this."

"And Grunkle Stan's heart grew three sizes that day," Mabel quipped – but her smile was weak at best.

"Don't push your luck, kid," he fired right back, arms crossed and grinning.

"Heh, thanks Mister Pines. Seriously. I'm gonna go home and check on dad." Wendy tossed up a wave and departed.

The Pines family broke up as well. While Stan prepared for another tour, the twins hunkered down in their bedroom. "If we had the time machine we could go fix this," Dipper muttered unhappily, lying on his bed and staring at the mold on the ceiling beams. "Stop the guy from being born or something."

While Mabel shared his ideals, sadness had activated the logical part of her mind. "Yeah, but then the future would be all different. What if people we knew went poof? What if _we_ went poof for some stupid reason?"

"True. Man." He rubbed firmly at his eyes. His thoughts traveled to the other twins, whom they hadn't seen since leaving the Dusk 2 Dawn. "Wonder how Winnie and Sue are handling it. I mean, they talk to ghosts too. Maybe they're... 'used to it' is the wrong thing to say, I guess."

She gasped with horror. "What if the baby ghosts are still talking to them? What if every person that ever died here is talking to them?! Holy moley!" Mabel hopped up and slipped on her sneakers. "Come on, bro. We dragged them into this, we gotta go see if they're okay."

"You've got a point." He nodded and stood. "Been cooped up in here too long anyway. The walk might clear our heads."

Instead of going into Gravity Falls directly, via the highway, they cut through the woods. This back route proved to be considerably harder, but it gave them other things to think about while scrambling through trees and over obstacles. At least, that had been the idea. Dipper noticed his sister lagging behind somewhat; upon going back to check, he found her in tears for the hundredth time in the past couple of days. "Why?!" she gasped. "Why would anyone hurt adorable tiny little..."

"I know. I know." All they could do now was hug. "I'm almost afraid to find out what else this place is hiding."

Frustrated, Mabel pounded his shoulder with a fist. "Which is stupid! I love Gravity Falls, it's all dorky and silly and... but now I'm just like..." She had to pause for a few sniffles. "I'm thinking things I didn't before. And bro, I don't like 'em."

He nodded over her shoulder, almost ready to weep himself. "No kidding," was all the comfort he had to offer.

They pressed on. A winding, noisy creek forced them to take a detour as Dipper looked for some place to ford it. The type of tree surrounding them changed with distance, from firs and cedar to massive redwoods. Mabel recognized the change almost instantly. "Hey, aren't we near the mines?"

"Huh?" His eyes darted about. "Oh, yeah. I guess so." Something stung his brain after a few seconds. "Ew, what is that? Do you smell it?"

She made a show of sniffing the air, her head head tossed back as she stood on her tiptoes. "I don't smell any—oh wow that is terrible what the ick," she replied, her expression changing mid-sentence as the odor filled her nose. "I'd make fun of you for not showering but this junk smells like _death_."

Overcome by curiosity – and against his better judgment – Dipper was already following the scent. "Yeah it does. Come on."

Several minutes of difficult travel lead them away from the creek and deeper into the redwoods. For a while, it was a game of hot or cold as one twin or the other tried to keep track of the awful odor. At last their noses agreed; helped by the wind, they followed it until a small clearing came into view. Scattered across the grass was the mutilated corpse of some massive dinosaur. Its head was entirely gone, and it had been split lengthwise down its body, exposing its ribcage. The rest seemed to be intact, featuring a small pair of arms and powerful, enormous rear legs, with a long tail attached. The brown taint of dried blood covered almost everything, including the nearby tree trunks to a height taller than the Pines. Mabel's first reaction was to run, hand over her mouth. Dipper couldn't make himself move. "What... what the?" he mumbled, flabbergasted by the sight. Only the sound of his sister losing her breakfast could make him turn and walk away. "Mabel? You all right?"

"Do I look all right?!" she snapped, hunched over and sucking air. The pungent smell made her hurl again. This time Dipper held her hair clear and rubbed her back to ease the process. "Th-thanks, bro."

"Let's get out of here." He lead her back toward the creek, pale as a sheet as he tried to resolve what they'd seen. "I'm trying to figure out what could kill a dinosaur like that and, gonna be honest here, all the possibilities make me wanna curl into a ball and cry."

She had other priorities at the moment anyway. A fierce look was on her face as she wiped her mouth with a sleeve. "Forget it, we have to warn the town!"

"They wouldn't believe us, and warn them about what? We don't know what did this."

"Well then, we'll warn the people that know better!" she shot back, grabbing his hand and running. "Come on, Dipper! We gotta move!"

* * *

Mabel hadn't been the only one searching for sanity in the insane. Sue spent hours on the couch with her laptop, trawling the internet for some good reason. Or some reason period. The awful truth was affecting her more than Winnie – or perhaps the blue-eyed woman was just better at hiding her revulsion. "There _has _to be an explanation for this!" she yelled suddenly, clutching the sides of her head. "It makes no sense! Why would anyone-" Words failed to express her disgust, so groans and growling had to do.

"You realize you might be looking for a why where none exists," Winnie replied gently. "Don't drive yourself crazy."

Sue crossed her arms with a fearsome huff and glared off to the side. "Sister, if we have a why attached to us, anything can."

"...you've got me there." Staring at the floor seemed like a good plan for the next few moments. Sue's demeanor was too much for her to ignore, though. "How bad did it get for you out there?"

"I don't want to talk about this, Winter."

She didn't yield an inch, despite the soft nature of her reply. "I'm listening anyway."

The red-eyed woman turned her back and bared teeth, determined to resist as long as possible. It wasn't long before the memories became too much. She removed the computer from her lap and folded up like an accordion, ending up on her side in a ball. "It was so awful. You can't even begin to imagine."

Winnie lounged against the armrest almost flippantly, but her eyes were deadly serious. "We both know that's a lie."

"Damn it!" Sue uncoiled and stood in one fluid, bitter motion. "I got so good at tricking them into coming with me. 'Oh, I won't hurt you.' And then..." Her palms came together with a tremendous noise. "That was it. The end. Little boys and girls, sister. Just old enough to trust a smiling stranger and too young to know better." Winnie had to hold her up as she began to slump and sob. "There must be some reason he did these things. There was a reason for us. If there isn't... then..."

A hug made her go quiet. "There probably is, but the question is whether or not we want to hear it." Winnie sat her down, never breaking their embrace. "I would attract people by pretending to be drowning. They would swim out to me and be so tired they couldn't escape. Our transgressions are equal. You know that."

"Are his?" Sue asked wearily, pointing at the laptop's screen. "What if he was like us?"

"I sincerely doubt it," she replied, brow furrowing deeply. "And unless we find some way to revive him, we'll never find out regardless. But what he did does raise questions about the... feeling."

This was something they could face together, and for that Sue was glad. She pulled away, retrieved her laptop, and tried to settle her nerves. "Oh, yes. What could have happened at the Mystery Shack for such a cloud to hang over it?"

"At least those sensations are not quite the same. That's something to be hopeful for." Winnie stared through the bay window and frowned at the beautiful day beyond. "And it's not just there. There are little puffs of it all over."

"Right. Not from the living people though. Which is so _weird_."

Her brow furrowed again, this time in thought. "Either the town is full of ghosts, or something else is going on here."

Sue's breaths were slow and even as she continued to fight the anguish in her heart. "Mhm. I want to know too, but we need to tread carefully. Look at what's already been discovered in our name."

"Mmm." Winnie took up her own laptop and started to browse. "I'm surprised Dipper and Mabel haven't been by to see us. I wonder why?" A heavy knock at the front door prevented any answers. Her first instinct was to open it at range as usual, but she caught herself with a low grumble. After answering it the normal way, she found the Pines twins and Wendy standing on the porch. Past them was a brown truck, which suddenly drove away down the street. She got a glance of a man with a baseball cap inside before it left, then turned her attention to Mabel and Dipper. "We were just talking about you two," she greeted, just as the red-faced, panicked looks on their faces could register. "Is something wrong?"

"Dinosaur killer!" Mabel wheezed, hands on her knees as she gasped for air. "No idea what happened. Gotta be on the look out for a... I dunno, a thing that looks like it could murder a dinosaur."

All she could manage in reply was a confused "What?" as Sue came up to see what was going on. "I'm a little lost here."

"Join the club!" Wendy exclaimed. "There are freakin' _dinosaurs_ in the old mine?" Her hands flew up in dumbfounded disgust. "This town, man. I don't know what to think anymore."

"Did you actually see the dinosaur?" Sue asked, almost timidly.

"Yeah! We did!" Dipper gasped. "Man, I am not built for running in the woods like that."

Mabel forced herself past the twins to find cool air. Her brother and Wendy followed, nearly tripping over her as she sat down to recover. "We got two possibilities here," she began gravely. "One: a bigger dinosaur killed that dinosaur and now we've got Jurassic Park: Gravity Falls happening. Two: I dunno what two could be but it's scary as heck to think about."

"I went with aliens," her brother advised breathlessly.

Wendy was thinking in a different direction. "Coulda been Octavia." Her eyes lit up. "Oh yeah, stay away from the mud flap factory. And don't _ever_ drink the water from that stream that runs by it, either."

"We'll... keep that in mind?" Sue looked up as Soos opened the door. "We've got a party going on now."

His eyes lit up too, but unlike Wendy his expression was full of glee. "Wait, did somebody say party? Dude! Lemme go get my DJ guide!"

"Soos, no. She's kidding." Dipper had recovered enough to stand up straight. "Oh yeah, this is Soos. He's kinda like the Mystery Shack fixer handy dude."

"What's up?" he chirped, waving happily. "Nice place. And ride." He examined the twins for a seconds, his face screwing up. "Man. You guys work out?"

Winnie, arms crossed, nodded idly. "Yes, we do. Nice to meet you." She watched as he, the Pines, and Wendy occupied their sofa. "Tired?"

"Little bit," the girl whined, rubbing herself from knees to ankles. "Ohhhhhh I hate rocks."

The redhead chuckled faintly. "I had to carry her back to the road. Was worth it, though. I got to post a pic of a headless dinosaur on Twitter. I should get a ton of retweets."

"That's nice and all, but we need to figure out what's going on," Dipper pointed out while slipping on his hat. "Octavia might have eight legs and laser eyes, but I doubt she could do all the stuff we saw." Mabel began to squeal beside him and wave her arms. "No,. Not only is your idea terrible, it's not even right of us to bring it up. No." He yelped as she smacked the back of his head. "Geez! Fine! Ask!"

Her arms shot up in celebration. "Woo! I was thinking you two could talk to the ghost of the dinosaur and ask it what happened! Brilliant, right? I know. Hold your applause."

_E__veryone's_ faces went blank. Winnie and Sue stared at each other for a few moments, unsure if they'd heard her correctly. "You want us to what?" the red-eyed woman finally asked.

Mabel glared and folded her arms. "Talk to the dino-ghost! Come on, girls. You heard me. Let's do this."

Wendy needed more clarification, and so raised her hand. "Hold it, you guys talk to ghosts?"

Genuine annoyance was seeping onto Winnie's face. With a sigh, she hid her eyes. "Yes, we talk to ghosts. Thank you for not telling anyone, Mabel."

"Pff, thank me later after we've saved Gravity Falls from certain... uh. Huh." Her head tilted. Then she slapped a hand over her mouth. "Oh, balls! I messed up!"

"Told you," Dipper stated with a smile, only to get another smack for his effort. "Ow!"

"Whoa whoa whoa, are you the new Gideon?" Soos interjected with a glare – or at least what passed as a glare for him. "'Cause we're gonna have to fight if you try to steal any deeds or shrink me. Or shrink the deeds and steal me. Wait, no, that kinda sounds like I'm hitting on you. Never mind."

Dipper rolled his eyes. "Moving on, we were coming up here anyway to check on you two. How you holding up since the... you know, got out?" Their deeply crestfallen looks said it all. "Oh, man. I was afraid of that." His face screwed up when he glanced over at Soos, who looked exactly the same. "You already knew? We were scared of telling you 'cause it's depressing as heck."

He dropped his head, replying mournfully, "Mister Pines mentioned it after the building fell down. You all have my sympathies." He perked up a bit upon receiving some hugs from Mabel.

"Hey!" she shouted, standing up just as soon as she was done reassuring the handyman. "So what if my idea is stupid? At least we'd be outside and doing _something_ besides turbo-moping until we cry to death. What do you say?"

"I'm in," Wendy sighed. "Can't really have some death beast roaming the forest. Might hurt my family, ya know." A wry smile crept onto her face. "Besides, more chances to take pictures I can sell."

"Oh, fine. If only to satisfy you," Dipper grumbled, arms crossed in mock distaste.

Soos rubbed his hands together excitedly. "It's like a murder mystery. You bet your life I'm on board!"

The identical twins shared one more look of disbelief before Winnie relented. "Fine, I suppose it can't hurt."

Chanting 'dinosaur' and cheering with various degrees of joy, the Mystery Shack detachment walked out the front door. The two women didn't immediately follow, however. "I bet they would be surprised if they knew what really happened," Sue said lowly.

Winnie couldn't help but smile as she slid on a pair of black thong sandals with turquoise trim. "I've no doubt about that. How did you even get it out of the mine?"

"Ah, sister," the red-eyed woman teased, wagging her finger. "We both know a little magic goes a long way. I was a little angrier than I thought. I needed space to fight."

She rolled her eyes on the way to the door. "Right. How long are we going to keep up this lie?"

Sue's smile died in a flash. "As long as we can, I guess. If they knew everything, the only way we'd be greeted in Gravity Falls is with bullets."

* * *

Soos lead everyone through the woods, humming a little tune with spoken words randomly thrown in. The rotting odor again served as a guidepost, but Winnie and Sue were focused on another sense entirely – the unquantifiable _thing_ hovering over the town, which they noticed was now clustered mostly behind them and to their left. They even knew where the Mystery Shack was, thanks to the distinct pitch of its spark.

"Watch these rocks," Dipper advised, pointing up ahead. "Mabel nearly broke her leg." When they reached them, the girl gave one an angry kick. "How can you hold a grudge against an inanimate object?"

"It tried to kill me!" she yelled furiously. Only when her rage was spent – which meant more kicking – did she scramble over the formation.

Before long the clearing and its awful contents came into view. Overpowering was the best way to describe the smell. "I'm just gonna wait over here," Mabel squeaked, on the edge of retching again. She wasn't the only one reluctant to approach.

"Uh, you're up," Wendy said, waving at the identical twins and fanning the air away from her nose. "Do the... ghost thing? I guess? I don't even know."

Winnie nodded and lead her sister into the clearing. "This should be fun," she murmured, once they had enough distance to ensure privacy. "We'd better think up a good story."

Sue's mind was elsewhere. It was the first time she'd seen her handiwork in full daylight. The extent of her violence was breathtaking. "I can't believe I managed to tear its head off with my hands," she whispered. "I don't actually remember where it ended up. I think I threw it."

Blinking with the revelation, Winnie moved to the rear of the carcass so they'd be out of sight. "Just how mad were you?"

"I couldn't see straight." She poked at the base of the creature's tail with her shoe and blinked. "You're always so calm. I wish you'd teach me."

"No teaching necessary, sister. I _know_ what happens when I lose control. That's enough of a deterrent for me." At her urging, they began to move back toward the others, albeit slowly. "Fib time. Let's brainstorm."

"Okay. Um..." Her ruby eyes rolled about in thought. "At least we know dinosaurs don't have 'ghosts'. I don't feel a thing. I kind of doubt there's an animal alive here that could kill one of these things, either. I've got nothing."

"They're expecting us to be spirit whisperers. If we come up empty, what happens then?" Winnie ran a hand over her hair and scowled. "We're in a hole."

Sue wilted, pawing at her face. "I'm sorry. The best I have is 'we don't know'. Then we can pretend to be in the same boat with everyone else."

"All right. Let's go."

An expectant smile from Mabel as they walked up almost undid Sue, but she stuck to the script. "Sorry. No ghosts to talk to here. We're not sure what happened."

"Told you, again." Dipper braced for another attack, but his sister was too ill to launch one. "You're about as green as the Hulk."

"Blaaaaargh," she moaned in response, partially doubled over. "Uh oh. Dry heaving."

Wendy and Soos' faces screwed up at the noises she made next. "Dude, we'd better get outta here before hambone blows chunks again."

They traversed the forest, going past Mabel's rocky nemesis and to the dirt road where the truck was parked. "Thanks for letting us drag you along," Dipper smiled, tipping his hat. "I'm too tired to be sad. I guess something went right."

"Yep," the redhead agreed. "Dang, man, seven thousand retweets!" She put her phone away with a smirk.

The boy nodded up at her. "I guess we should be heading home ourselves. Mabel probably needs to rehydrate."

"Nothing... left... to puke..." she moaned dramatically.

Soos patted her head gently. "Please don't lose it in the truck, dude."

"No promises."

"Before you run off, take this." Winnie produced a notepad and pen from her jeans pocket, scribbled something down, and handed the sheet to Dipper. "My phone number. Now you won't have to walk so much."

Dipper glanced over it and smiled. "Thanks. You sure you don't want a ride?"

Sue ran in place with a huge grin. "It's okay, we'll run back."

Goodbyes were exchanged. The twins watched the truck drive away until it disappeared beyond a curve. "I thought that went well," Winnie affirmed, once more smoothing back her hair.

"Yes! Still doesn't answer our questions, though." A glint in the sky drew her gaze. A jet was flying high overhead. "What an odd place this is."

"Yes. But at least the people are nice." Off they went, jogging down the path. Except for the wind rustling the branches above, the woods were incredibly quiet. A few minutes of running still hadn't gotten them clear of the forest, and for some reason Sue was beginning to lag behind. "What's the matter?"

Certainly wasn't exertion. She hadn't even broken a sweat. Some strange mixture of confusion and anxiety was on her face. "Do you get the feeling someone's watching us in here?"

Winnie's eyes darted about, landing on tree trunks and bushes. "Not really, why?"

"Not sure. Just a... hmm." Sue peeked back over her shoulder at the woods. "I'm beginning to get as curious as you are. What is Gravity Falls _hiding_ from us?"


	7. We Are Not Alone

For three days Sue continued to search for answers about Dr. Seifert with Winnie's help, but information was scarce. They didn't dare peel at the fragile band-aid Gravity Falls had put on by poking around and asking people. Whatever the internet offered them was all they got. From this, they knew the man had died seven years ago in prison, but not even the authorities had a full picture of the extent of his crimes.

It left Sue wanting. "Maybe he was just... evil."

Her twin was faring little better, slumped back against the sofa with her eyes hidden. "Thinking about it is exhausting. I want to know why the Mystery Shack feels so similar."

"Hmm. We can't just come out and ask."

Winnie dropped her hand and sighed. "I know. I'm surprised they haven't called us. It's been a while."

"Let them have their space." Sue was now browsing the news – which only succeeded in making her feel even worse. "What awful stories," she pointed out, closing her laptop. "At least we're not across the sea. We'd be getting shot at."

Winnie issued a single nod. "Right. I know about war, but I'd rather you didn't – so we'd better be careful in keeping the peace around _these_ parts while we find out what's going on."

An amused smirk appeared at Winnie's phrasing. "'Around these parts'. Which is what I've been saying all along." Someone's smartphone was ringing; Sue reacted first, raising her hand and allowing it to zip through the air into her open palm. "Hello?"

"Hey! Uh... Sue. I think. Please tell me you're Sue." It was Dipper, and based on his voice the extra days between him and learning the truth about the old hospital seemed to have helped.

"You got it," she confirmed. "Thought you'd forgotten about us."

"Ha! Nah, we've just been busy helping Grunkle Stan prepare for the... I don't know what he's calling it. Some kind of party. I think he might be serious about the free admission this time."

Sue had quietly put him on speaker so Winnie could hear. They shared a curious look. "Is this an invitation?" the blue-eyed woman asked, an eyebrow slightly raised.

"Whoa, hey. Kinda, I mean, we haven't seen you around in a couple of days. Neither has anybody else."

Mabel, from what seemed like Dipper's immediate vicinity, chimed in at full volume. "Yeah, where the heck have you been?"

"Thanks. Now I'm deaf. Any—hey! Give me those chips!" The dulcet tones of sibling combat poured into their living room for a few moments. "You're just as much a pig as Waddles is! That was supposed to be my bag!"

"What did you call me?! _I will cut you, boy_!_"_

"Aaaaaah!"

Their faces screwed up again as they were treated to an encore of Dipper and Mabel bickering. "I'm glad we don't fight," Sue sighed with an eye roll.

Winnie's head tilted at the sounds. "Mm. We're theoretically more mature than that.

A victorious Mabel continued the phone call. "Don't pout at me. There are some things you just don't say to a girl." She drew a breath and took on a much happier tone. "Dipstick also wanted to let you know he got the journal back! Wanna read about some flowers that sing opera?"

Now they had the twins' interest. "Hmm," Winnie mused, rubbing her chin. "I certainly would."

"Cool. We'll make sure you get in without any Stan harassment. And please drive. I need money for yarn so I'm thinking I could charge people to sit in your car and get their picture taken."

That was too much for Dipper to take. "Geez! I'm gonna start calling you Grunkle Mabel!"

"Excuse me, do you think these awesome sweaters grow on trees?" A pregnant pause was next. "...can I look at the journal? I wanna see if there's a sweater tree."

"No! Last time I let you we ended up with the truth teeth!"

"Could we come over now? Before the crowd arrives," Winnie butted in, hoping to stop a third round of fighting.

"Of course. Just, uh, expect to get drafted for party prep if you do," Dipper advised.

"And bring your car!" Mabel yelled in addition.

"All right. We're on our way."

"Bye!" Sue added before hanging up. "Looks like you're about to get your wish."

Winnie had already summoned her sneakers in the same way Sue had the phone. She slipped them on and started toward the door. "Oh, yes." They emerged into a gorgeous, sunny day, where the sky was full of cheerful white cotton balls. "Do you want some earplugs?" she inquired as they entered the Lamborghini, a wry smile on her face.

Sue returned her sarcasm with a half-smirk. "Shut up and drive, sister."

* * *

They arrived roughly twenty minutes later. Winnie decided to park right out front, where Wendy and Dipper were struggling to hang up some sort of lights above one of the porches.

"Hey," the redhead greeted as they emerged from the car. "Where ya been hidin'?"

"Oh, lounging around and sleeping off the funk," Sue smiled brightly. "Seen anymore dead dinosaurs?"

Wendy's face screwed up. "Nah, thank goodness. I heard they found the head of the one we saw up on Route 33, though."

Dipper, on a ladder and fighting a tangle of cabling, added, "We decided to just take their word for it." He fought on with it, nearly falling off once or twice. "This stuff is worse than Christmas lights!"

"Dude, don't pull! You're just gonna make it tighter." Wendy flashed a hopeful smile as the twins came over. "Could you give us a hand? Mabel and Soos are inside dealin' with the food and stuff. Hope Waddles doesn't eat it all before the party starts."

Grumpiness had already tainted Winnie's expression, thanks to the pervasive sensation that clung to everything in sight. Sue didn't appear to be far behind; both women, however, set aside the burden and put on a happier face. "I suppose," the blue-eyed woman replied. "What do we do?"

"Just hang 'em along the edge of the tin," Dipper instructed, coming down the ladder. He tossed the hopeless bundle to Sue. "Good luck with that." Wendy took up a position by their sports car to watch, which is where he moved to stand as well.

"Ooo, a puzzle." A puzzle at which she immediately and subtly cheated, using her power to trace one end's path through the Gordian knot. While her fingers made a show of untangling, it was her gift that actually did the work. "Finished!" she exclaimed happily, holding it above her head.

"You have got to be kidding me!" a stunned Dipper yelled.

Winnie was already up on the ladder, where she found the nails and hammer the boy had left behind. "That hole is driving me crazy," she grumbled to Sue, figuring there was enough distance to keep the discussion private.

With fluid motions, she fed the strand up so Winnie could nail it to the siding. "Same. What could be going on down there?"

"I don't know, but I have an idea about finding out."

"Oh?" Sue watched her tap the nails into place. "How?"

"In a minute."

Dipper and Wendy approached as she finished up, eying her handiwork. "Nice," the redhead approved. "You wanna do the rest?" Her smile said she was joking, but he urged them via a series of frantic nods and hand gestures to take her up on it.

"We kind of want to go inside," Sue denied gently, a nervous grin on her face.

"...crap," Dipper groaned. "I guess I'll move the ladder. We'll be inside in a minute. I hope. Probably not."

Wendy gave him a pat on the back. "Can't win 'em all. I'll climb up this time."

The Shack offered little relief from the penetrating sting of whatever leaked from the pit, but at least the twins were now alone in the gift shop. Winnie stared at Dipper through the windows until he'd gone out of sight. "We're going to wait until the party's distracted everyone," she stated lowly. "Then we're jumping in that pit."

"Hmm. Okay." Sue beat on the side of her head with the heel of her hand. "Ungh. My brain is starting to hurt. Can we really stay here that long?"

The blue-eyed woman stared at her palms. "We have protection. As long as no one sees us use it." With that out of the way, finding Mabel was their next priority. A check in the living room yielded nothing; the kitchen was equally empty. Before long they realized they were wandering through a layout that made at least one of them suspicious.

"The outside of this place does _not_ fit the inside," Sue determined as they entered the museum area. "It's so big in here. I don't understand."

She was already annoyed enough, but laying eyes on the 'Invisible Man' – string and all – made Winnie glower. "So this is what passes as a museum? Come on, let's go the other way."

At last they stumbled upon a large room with a floor made mostly of enormous, polished checkerboard tile. Mabel and Soos were fussing around a long table dotted with cups, forks, plates, and a large glass bowl.

"What if we put Pitt in the punch?" he asked thoughtfully. "Nobody expects fizzy punch."

"No, no, it'd go flat. You wanna drink flat Pitt, even if it is hidden by punchy goodness?" He shook his head quickly. "Thought so. Keep thinking." Mabel had a list in her hand, boldly titled 'ideas for the best punch in history ever'. "Wait! Jalapeno peppers! A punch with kick!" She attempted a roundhouse for emphasis and nearly fell over. Her spin left her facing the identical twins. "Hey!"

"Hello – and I like peppers," Winnie greeted quietly. A hug from the girl served to take the edge off the invisible prodding from outside. "Nice to see you."

Soos offered a smile and wave. "'Sup, dudes? Wanna help us with the punch?"

Sue laughed a little while shaking her head. "I wouldn't know where to start."

"Dang. Back to the drawing board." Mabel stepped away with a deeply thoughtful look, which burst like a bubble as she realized why they might really be here. "Lookin' for the journal? Ask Dip, he's outside somewhere."

"We saw him." But the awful vapor coming from the pit had caused Winnie to forget to ask about it. She knew then that something was seriously wrong. "...hmm."

Soos cocked an eyebrow at her expression. "You all right? Seem kinda tense. I got some really mellow music you could listen to. You know. Chill beats."

Mabel thought she had the answer. Her demeanor grew timid. "A-are you still mad at me for blurting out your secrets?"

Winnie did her absolute best to put on a smile, though she knew it probably still looked strained. "No, it's okay. Unless you told someone else."

The girl shook her head violently. "Nope. Wendy and Soos are cool, I promise."

"Sister," Sue mumbled, elbowing her gently in the side. "Can I talk to you for a second?"

"Oh. All right. We'll be right back."

The side entrance took them dangerously close to the object of their misery. Fortunately, they could hear Dipper and Wendy talking from the other side of the building. Sue beckoned her sister to follow and walked toward the woods. "We're not going to last until tonight."

"I know. It's much more volatile than what we felt in the hospital." Winnie came to a halt and leaned on a tree trunk. "What do you think we should do?"

She stared toward the sign marking the pit, just barely visible through the cedars. "Jump in. We definitely do not want to get agitated. Maybe we can find out what's going on and stop it."

"What if jumping in makes it worse?"

The red-eyed woman could produce no rebuttal. "Eh. Good point." They stared at the sign again until her face brightened with an idea. "What if I go alone?"

"_Absolutely not_, _Summer_."

Winnie's tone was so potent, so forceful, even Sue had to wince with fear – but she still had the courage to press on. "If something bad happens, you can stop me. You're strong enough. If we're both down there and it goes wrong... who's going to stop _us_?"

Sue had never seen a look so vulnerable – and at the same time breathtakingly intense – on her sister's face before. "I'd rather burn this planet to cinders than even consider hurting you." Silence made her look up. "Do you feel the same?"

Her idea was dying with every passing second. Part of her tried to brush it off by saying it was stupid anyway, but the truth lay elsewhere. Hurting Winnie was a concept she found equally repulsive. "You know I do." Back to the pit she looked, teeth lightly clenched. "I am so anxious. You're antsy again. We need an answer."

"Yes, we do." They crept back toward the edge of the trees, peering around for any sign of Dipper or Wendy. Faint echoes of a conversation indicated they were still on the other side of the house. "Come on."

"Now? Why are you in such a hu-" Her mouth shut abruptly. Sue already knew why; the same anxiety pulled at her nerves. "The pit. It's calling to us."

Winnie smiled widely – the word had been on the tip of her tongue ever since she had arrived in Gravity Falls. "Exactly. Let's answer."

They dashed through the clearing toward the pit, though the energy pouring from it stabbed harder with every step. While they meant to jump in, they were robbed of their motor skills by sheer sensory overload when they reached the edge, and so fell awkwardly into it instead. Once they were underground, however, the sensation mostly vanished.

"What happened?" Sue called over the noise of the wind. "Why is it so quiet?" And not just quiet. This was like falling through ink; the only way they knew there was anything around them were the echoes of her words.

"I don't know. Hold on." Winnie reached into her jeans pocket and pulled out her phone to light the way. She swept it around and found normal soil made up the walls, which soon became bedrock. "Let's slow down and get our bearings." Instead of falling in a skydiving position, she rotated to a feet-first one, pointed her palms downward, and began to slow. The phone, floating along near her head, matched the reduction in speed until both came to a stop. Sue, on her right, was hovering in a similar fashion. "Do you feel a push on your shoes?"

"A little?" The red-eyed woman fluttered over to the rock and pressed her hands on it. She called off her power and relaxed until she was hanging freely. "Now I definitely feel it." She smiled as Winnie latched to the rock beside her. "Cold, down here, huh?"

She rolled her eyes a bit and smirked. "As if the temperature ever bothered us."

They scaled the endless face, occasionally looking back up to see how tiny the spot of sky that marked their entrance had become. After about ten minutes of descent – according to the phone, at least – it vanished altogether. The farther down they went, the firmer the push became. Soon it was joined by wind that whipped Sue's hair around; instinctively they grabbed the rock with their fingertips, but there was no need. Their palms were fully adhered. "I feel like I want to fall up," she noted. Suddenly, she stopped dead in her tracks. "Sister! Sparks! Actual, genuine sparks! Below us!"

Winnie nodded in confirmation. "Weak ones, but... a _lot_ of them. Let's drop and see what happens."

Once more they fell like bricks through the abyss, however this time they used their power to _accelerate_ their descent. An almost equal shove against their travel appeared in seconds, but they had the force to overwhelm it and keep going until their shoes touched down on the rocky bottom of the pit. Scattered around them was trash of all sorts, including a broken box full of letters. Sue walked around the circular area, staring straight up into the darkness. Unlike the lights in the hospital, she understood these invisible voices perfectly. "They're trying to help us up!"

"I believe we've found out why Dipper and Mabel think this pit is bottomless." Enough air was blowing now to make even Winnie's slicked down locks move a bit. "Relax. We understand you. We're alright. We can fly."

The unseen sparks coalesced into a huge rainbow bubble of light, so big it was forced to bounce awkwardly against the rock walls. A tidal wave of soundless questions bombarded the twins' ears. "Okay, okay, one at a time," Sue shouted, hands raised for silence. "Oh, my brain. Seems a lot like home. Huh? We feel like you? Well, you feel like us. Trust me, we're just as confused as you are."

Winnie, arms crossed, took over the conversation. "What are you doing down here?" Her eyebrow cocked. "Trying to go home? I don't understand." She watched the bubble bounce against a certain spot on the rock over and over. "Through there? You can't dig?" Again, it bounced weakly off the stone. "I see. You don't have the strength." Face screwed up in thought, she went over to the spot and drove a fist against it. Cracks raced out and away from her knuckles, but it was the vibrations that attracted her interest. "I don't think this is just rock."

Sue was contemplating something else. "Sister, wait. If they're like us, how did _they_ get here?"

"I..." Her face dropped before she looked back up at the rainbow blob. "That's a good point. How did you get here?" As it spoke, she cocked her head in confusion. "What do you mean this is the way you came in?"

"There's nothing around here but the Mystery Shack." Sue stepped back as the bubble started to gyrate frantically. "That's how you got here? Why can't you just go back that way, then?" Its fluctuations slowed to an odd, rhythmic wobble. "You can't remember how, only that you came from underneath it. Okay."

"What in the world could be under it?" Winnie asked, brow furrowed powerfully. "Ugh, as usual I ask questions and only get more questions."

The bubble was increasing in size from the top down as more sparks joined. "Hey, you're the screamers from the surface," Sue realized. "So that's why we felt you from so far. You really were calling out to us."

"Because we have the same signature and there's hardly any interference. They knew we had come to Gravity Falls and assumed we knew of a way back." Winnie moved closer and poked the blob with a slender finger. "We do, but maybe the way you got here is simpler. Let's try that first." She cracked her knuckles a few times and looked over toward the rock. "I suppose we need to start digging."

Sue denied her with a few points upward. "Later. The kids are going to get suspicious."

"True." Winnie switched to patting the iridescent blob. "We'll help you, but we might need some time. Would you give us a boost back up?"

With a final wobble, the colorful clump broke up and became invisible again. The twins suddenly felt what seemed like thousands of small hands pushing on their bodies, lifting them off the floor and into the abyss. With an assist from their own might, they rocketed up the pit at breakneck speed. "We have to talk to Stan!" Sue shouted.

"You ain't kidding!"

She couldn't stop a giggle. "Pff... ain't."

Ahead of them the small swatch of sky reappeared, then gained size at a remarkable pace. They stopped applying force and let the pit's own power push them the rest of the way, where they were spat out into the air as if bouncing off a trampoline. Winnie came down in a crouch on the grass, while her sister executed a series of somersaults and stuck the landing, arms out and grinning like a gymnast.

"Wow. 9.5!"

They looked over to see Mabel, Dipper, Soos, and Wendy, who applauded as Sue took a little bow. "Yeah, 9.5 seems about right," he added playfully. "Enjoy the pit?"

Winnie shrugged at him. "It was..." Silence derailed her train of thought. No more shrieking angst. No more beckoning. Only the rustling of the leaves and a much duller spark, fluctuating in intensity and coming directly from the house itself. She cocked a brow. "Enlightening."

"I'd ask how you jumped out of there," Wendy smiled lowly, "but at the rate this week's been goin' I think I'll keep my mouth shut."

"We'll explain later," Soos advised. "It's a pretty funny story."

She smirked up at him. "Neat. I could use a laugh. You wanna help me with the signage?"

"I get to use a hammer? Don't have to ask me twice!" They walked away toward the rear of the house.

Mabel giggled. "Poor Wendy. She's been run through the wringer." She giggled again at Dipper's hasty, lovestruck agreement – then loaded up a scold for the other twins. "We were kinda worried! Nearly called the police. You gotta be _desperate_ to call the police around here," she groaned.

"Yeeeaaaah, I wouldn't call the sheriff, uh... effective," Dipper agreed. "Hey, Grunkle Stan called. When I told him you were here he asked if you'd pick up the food tab." He expected their stunned looks and shrugged. "Yeah. I know. He's actually, factually serious. How badly do you want me to tell him off?"

The twins shared an annoyed glance while trying to determine if now was the time to hammer the old man with their new questions. Sue shook her head a few times and smiled. "Let him down easy," Winnie decided.

"I'll do it. I gotta go make sure Waddles isn't pigging out." Mabel snickered to herself while walking back toward the door. "Hee. Pigging out."

Her brother watched her go for a moment before turning back to the twins. "Welp. You guys up for working your light string magic again? There's a bundle as big as Wendy. Totally serious."

The twins glanced around, enjoying the quiet for a moment. As such, they were in much better moods. "Oh," Winnie mused. "I don't see why not."

* * *

Professing a need to change clothes, Winnie and Sue had driven home about half an hour before the festivities were due to start. A few people had already shown up when they left. The real reason they departed was to get a new ethereal survey of the area without the magical shrieking from the pit casting a cloud. Their hilltop vantage point offered a vast perspective.

"It's amazing how much we can detect without any background noise," Sue noted, sipping from her mug as they stood on the front porch. "Doesn't it feel like there's something missing, though?"

"Yes." Winnie had her eyes trained on the one completely dark spot in an otherwise well-lit grid of streets: the Dusk 2 Dawn. "Why is there nothing where we _know_ ghosts exist?"

"Hold on." After looking around for witnesses, Sue let her mug float. "We only felt the thing in the hospital after we got really close. If the stone was preventing us from detecting the power trapped in the pit, could the concrete have done the same thing?"

"Hmm. Possibly. It was weak enough, for sure. It wouldn't have needed much help to hide." Winnie paced a bit, arms crossed and staring at her sneakers. "If those were wisps of power we freed, that means they've been there for half a century. How did they get there? Why did they sound like children?"

Sue snatched her mug out of the air and groaned heavily. "Now I know how you feel. Every question splits into two or three. Like... what are they called? Amoeba."

Winnie glanced at her imposing black and silver wristwatch and blinked. "Mm, yes. We'd better get ready for the party, I suppose."

Their outfits didn't change much. Sue went with a deep red dress and heels, topped off by a glittering silver brooch shaped like a bird of some sort that clung to her right shoulder. Winnie, seeing no need for fanciness, simply changed into black jeans, kept her sneakers, and finished with a long-sleeved, light blue tee. Her sister's disapproval was almost palpable as they returned to the car. "Sister, wear a skirt for once. I tried it. You can try it too."

"No. I'm too used to pants," she replied while firing the engine. "Besides, I want to blend in. You know I don't get along well with... social functions."

Sue dismissed her concerns with a dainty wave – an odd motion coming from a woman that looked anything _but_ dainty. "Oh, it'll be fine. I'll be there."

The Lamborghini shot through the evening like a bullet. In ten minutes of spirited driving they were back at the Mystery Shack – and there was a crowd, lined up in front of a table with a sign above it that proclaimed 'Get your picture taken in a car worth more than you!' and '$1' under the sentence. It was clearly Mabel's handwriting. In fact, she was sitting at the table taking bills. "Okay folks, single file!" they heard her yell as they got out of the vehicle. "That's it! Plenty of time. Oh, uh, hi girls!"

"You are..." Winnie's vocabulary failed. She rubbed her eyes and sighed. "Something."

The girl just shrugged and beamed at them. "Hey, mommy needs some new knitting needles. Also I kinda owe Dipper a few bags of chips. Like... seven. Or so."

"Uh huh. They are _not_ sitting in my car, Mabel," Winnie warned her firmly as they walked past to go inside.

Mabel swallowed at her tone and quickly relented. "Whoa! Okay! Uh... well... dang it, I'm already in the hole enough with them. All right, new plan, everybody! Get your picture taken standing appropriately close to a car that's worth more than you! Any takers?" The volume of money coming her way didn't decrease. "Sweet. Waddles, you're gonna be my piggy bank for a – piggy bank! I kill me – for a little while, okay?"

Dipper met the twins just as soon as they'd closed the door behind them. "Hey! Welcome back. And I am so incredibly sorry." He motioned out the window to the crowd. "She's beginning to discover capitalism. I pray for us all."

"Perhaps I should get a less conspicuous vehicle, then," Winnie muttered unhappily. Sue's bright smile only made her glare. "Stop it. Just... stop."

"Yeah, it's the second biggest attraction in town behind this place. I dunno whether that's a bigger insult to Gravity Falls or to Lamborghini. Eh. Anyway, if you wanna see the journal, let me know. I'll be upstairs." He tipped his cap and departed.

They wandered into the floor room, where Wendy greeted them with a wave and smile, but no words due to the _interesting_ music Soos was playing. The place was fairly packed. A lot of the other guests were people they had only seen in passing. Sue realized there weren't just people moving about once she got used to the flashing lights. "Sister...?"

"I know. I see them."

For some time, they disregarded it and tried to act natural by saying hello to people that came up to introduce themselves, milling about, stealing slices of pizza. Manly Dan was the final straw. "Dan Corduroy!" he boomed over the inane rap music, shaking both twins' hands at once. Their ability to return his strength made him hesitate for a split second. "Ooo, strong grip. Like that. Like that power. Welcome to Gravity Falls!"

Wendy, standing nearby, heard his compliment. Her jaw dropped. "_Whoa_. Did he just say what I think he said?"

The twins ignored her amazement; their focus was on the tiny gold ball of light orbiting her father's head that trailed him as he walked away. He wasn't the only one with a glowing stalker. Lazy Susan had one that hugged the hem of her dress. Bud Gleeful had one tagging along between his shoulder blades. By their count, one out of every six people in the room had a formless firefly hanging around. At Winnie's direction, they retreated to a corner to address the issue.

"Are you hearing what I'm hearing?" Sue asked, barely audible over the dubstep country music.

"Yes. It's quiet enough for them now to say goodbye," Winnie replied. She poked at her ears a few times. "Relatively speaking."

Her ruby eyes traveled over the crowd. "That makes me happy and sad all at once. But I'm confused."

"Same. We'll talk about it later." She motioned at Stan, heading up to the stage.

"Soos, I will pay you to turn that off," he begged gruffly. "Please. I gotta—I gotta address the crowd. Soos. Soos! You're making my hearing aids go deaf! Ple—thank you. Phew. Ladies and gentlemen!"

The rest of his words were lost to the twins, who were too busy tracking the tiny golden twinkle that ran circles around his fez. "Oh... oh my," Sue breathed, her eyes wide. "There's another question for us."

"Yes," Winnie nodded before taking another bite of pizza. "But let's let everyone have tonight. They've earned it."


	8. Old Habits

Blackness spread out in every direction as far as Sue could see. While she was visible to herself – waving her hands in front of her eyes proved this – the light source that made it possible was nowhere to be found. Walking seemed pointless. No amount of steps got her anywhere different. Yet she pressed on through the abyss with long, powerful strides in hopes of... something. What it was she looked for escaped explanation, but it would surely be better than what surrounded her now.

Part of the ebony curtain slid away ahead, producing a white spike of illumination that was thickest at its base, like a spotlight was shining down. There were two vague forms caught in its glow, which turned out to be humanoid when Sue got close. They were small, like children.

_Of course I'll play with you_. Her mouth moved, but no sound came out. It didn't matter. She took one of the shapes by the neck with both hands and squeezed so hard her arms trembled with the force. The thing didn't react at all; it just hung limply in her grip – until it became Dipper. Sue threw him down and dropped to her knees. _What?_

The other thing became Mabel, lying on her side with deep bruises on her throat, just like her brother. They were dead. And it was her fault. She would have given all of creation to scream her grief, her horror, but only wispy breaths escaped her lips. _Why?!_

Sue's palms suddenly felt like hot coals. When she looked to determine why, a crimson slit opened vertically through each. The cuts leaked glittering drops of black fluid that flowed along her skin until they fell away into the empty hell around her. Unable to take looking at their bodies any longer, she ran weeping from the light and back into the darkness, legs driving so hard they felt ready to fly out of her hips altogether. After managing to empty her strength, she collapsed and looked back only to find them no farther away than when she'd started. Seething with rage, with horror, with anguish so deep it swallowed the dark, she screamed again. "Why can't I-" It was no longer black. She had woken up. "-get... get away. Agh." Tears ran down her cheeks as she wilted in the passenger seat – although this wasn't the silver Lamborghini she found herself in. "Oh, my heart."

Badly rattled, it took several moments for her to get her bearings and dry her eyes. She threw glances around the interior, clad in black with aluminum trim, a BMW logo on the steering wheel, and most notably two more seats in the back. Winnie wasn't here. In search of her sister, she next looked through the glass at the drizzle, then the little brick building on the other side of the parking lot. Beyond that lay a thick line of trees. Shaking, she got out and started toward the structure – only to be stopped by the car's metallic red paint. "What the..." Face screwed up with confusion, she darted around the back and found Winnie examining a vending machine.

"Oh, you're awake," she greeted, only to be stunned by Sue's red face after a moment. "...were you crying?"

"I had the dream again," she sighed, unable to elucidate the changes in this instance of it, at least so soon. More tears would fall if she did.

Winnie pulled her into a tight hug but said nothing else.

Sue was just as quiet for a long, long while. "Unh," she finally grunted, gently pulling away. Another subject had to be addressed now – but only after checking to see if they were alone. "Sister, the last time I got in that car it was silver."

"And now it's red." Winnie returned to eying the items in the vending machine.

Her hands went to her hips. "I noticed."

With a shrug, she finally inserted a bill and pressed a few buttons. "I saw how your eyes lit up when we were shopping around. You didn't really want silver. This is your car, it should be your favorite color. Nobody will know the difference," she explained while getting the bottle of Pepsi from the bottom.

"But it's _our_ car."

"So? You like blue. I can like red."

"Oh, you." Sue hugged her again, grinning widely. "Isn't it _gorgeous_?" At that point she noted how quiet her mind was. "How far away are we from Gravity Falls? I don't feel a thing out here."

"I drove for an hour. However far that is." She checked her watch and started back toward the sedan. "I think we've killed enough time. You want to drive back?"

Sue's face went blank for an instant. "Sure, but I have no idea where we... oh, it's got navigation! I don't need to know!" She almost skipped along. "Technology is fun!" Her anxiety was back in force as she slipped behind the wheel, however. "Uh, how heavy can I be with my foot? I wasn't really awake long enough to watch you drive."

"It makes a nice noise if you want it to. I'll help you."

Her fingers were shaking on the wheel. "Okay..." Getting back onto the freeway wasn't a problem, but Sue had a little trouble judging her speed. Winnie called out the numbers on the signs to keep her in line as cars zoomed by in the left lane. "Are you sure I'm doing sixty?"

She leaned over to look. "Yes. Everyone on these roads seems to be in a hurry. Just ignore them."

"Right." Sue drove on, grinning to herself as she pressed the accelerator a little harder. "It does make a nice sound, huh?"

"Mm. And we can still hear ourselves think." Winnie set up the navigation for her sister, settling back after she'd finished. "What about your dream?"

She slumped over as far as possible while still looking at the road. "Mabel and Dipper were in it this time. I tried to run away, but... you know."

Winnie took a thoughtful sip of soda. "So that's why you were crying."

"It _hurts_."

She hung her head and frowned. "Of course it does. We understand what we've done now."

"I guess." Sue's grip got tighter. "Are you still having _your_ dream?"

"I..." Her face dropped as she looked out the passenger window. "Yes. The details are a lot clearer now, though. But the injection is just as painful as it's always been."

"Oh." Sue felt the air get heavy; this was a path neither woman felt like going down right now. Again, she groped for a new topic. "Forget it. How should we confront Stan Pines? I don't have any ideas."

"I'm not sure yet either," Winnie agreed, brow furrowing in thought. "I don't think either of us wants to tip over the apple cart by just barging in there."

Brief giggles came and went. "Apple cart. You're right. I can't figure out how to go about it... discreetly."

The blue-eyed woman's nascent reply was interrupted as her phone started to ring. "Hello?"

"Hey, Winnie! You are Winnie, right? Man, you two sound exactly the same over the phone." It was Dipper.

Smiling lightly, she shook her head. "Yes, it's me. What's going on?"

"Ah, nothin', nothin'. Noticed you left pretty early last night. Mabel wanted me to ask if she'd made you mad again but you guys were hard to get in touch with."

"Oh, sorry. We've been in Portland on an errand," Winnie lied smoothly. "And no, I'm not mad."

"Great! Good. I'll tell her. She was freaking out a little. Uh, by the way, you still wanna check out the journal?"

Winnie squinted out at the intermittent raindrops. "We do. We'll be back in about an hour or so. Tell Mabel she's going to be disappointed."

"Huh? About what?"

"It's a surprise." She glanced over and grinned at Sue's quizzical look. "I'm going to go before I distract my sister too much."

"Oh, right. Later!"

Sue, an eyebrow still cocked, peered at her sister for a moment. "I assume that was Dipper. Everything all right?"

"Fine. He wanted to know if we were still interested in the journal." She reached over to the dashboard to change their destination. "Perhaps we can get something from it without having to poke around."

"Good idea!" She accelerated again, smiling as the engine released a pleasant metal purr into the cabin. "Oh. This _is_ fun."

Winnie crossed her arms, regarding her with a stern look. "Mm. Remember the difference between fun and crashing, if you don't mind."

* * *

Thanks in part to Sue's lead foot, they managed to outrun the rain back to Gravity Falls. Clouds were just beginning to roll in overhead as she brought the red BMW to a halt in front of the Mystery Shack. A gentle, low hum greeted them as they stepped out, though even after concentrating they couldn't decide whether the building or the pit was its source. Mabel came around to greet them with a portly pig toddling along at her feet.

"Ooo, hey!" the girl waved with a broad smile. "Hey, where's the whatchamathingy?"

"Got rid of it. We decided to go with something a little less... conspicuous," Winnie replied as they walked over to meet her. "Waddles, I presume?" Her head tilted as the pig oinked up at her.

"I—I want one," Sue whispered with awe. "It's so pink and cute."

Mabel gave her a wink. "Yeah. She gets it," she smirked before looking back at Winnie. "Kinda sad you ditched it, though. I made $400 last night. Bought me enough knitting supplies to last until January!"

Sue let a chuckle slip as she rubbed Waddles' belly. "We're not really used to the attention."

"Awwww, but four doors are boring! Bleh. Anyways, his royal Dippingness is in the gift shop waitin' on ya."

Winnie smiled a thank you and headed off, Sue in tow and grumbling about not being able to take Waddles along. They met Wendy on the porch, apparently heading off somewhere. "What's up, guys? Cool wheels. Again. Must be nice being loaded."

"Thank you," Winnie nodded politely. "It was nice meeting your father, by the way. Even if he tried to break our fingers."

The redhead grinned wryly and straightened. "Aw, he just shakes hard." Her eyes went to the BMW as she walked to her bike. "Man, that is _shiny._"

"Isn't it?" Sue beamed. A glance around quashed the smile – her sister was wearing an odd look that she couldn't explain. "Hmm?"

"Can I ask you something?" Winnie's inquiry was addressed to Wendy, who nodded. "Did your father... did he lose someone at Gravity Falls General?"

The question made her freeze right in the middle of putting on her helmet. The color left her cheeks. "I—what? How did you know?"

"We talk to ghosts, remember?"

"Oh, man, I..." she breathed, rubbing her face. "When did you figure this out?"

"At the party last night," Sue explained. "We felt them saying goodbye."

"Is that why...?" Tears began to gather in Wendy's eyes. "He was so happy yesterday. I mean, he'd been feeling better, but he was just... smilin'. I was afraid to ask him why. Do you—do you think he knew something?"

"I think everyone knows on some level. Perhaps it just feels like closure," Winnie said quietly. Both twins blinked when she came over and gave each a tight hug.

"Fuck, man—sorry. Sorry." She tried to wipe away the swear, only to find a grateful smile in its place. "I don't know how to thank you."

Winnie shook her gratitude off. "We didn't do anything. I just thought he had a right to know someone he'd lost was telling him farewell."

"Whatever. He feels a lot better now." Finally she got around to strapping on her headgear. "Oh, I'm gonna cry. I better ride hard and get it outta my system. Later."

They watched her speed away. Sue, face screwed up with confusion, regarded her sister with crossed arms. "What was that for?"

"It's nice to _alleviate_ someone's suffering for once." With a light smile, she moved up to the door and entered the gift shop.

Dipper was sitting idly behind the register. "Hey, there you are!" He waved them over while producing _3_ from inside his vest. "Here it is," he chirped proudly, opening the book as they gathered around and spinning it so they could read. "We got squash head, gnomes, stupid crystals that can get you stepped on, rocks which speak backwards, and a fish that fishes for other fish – with a pole and everything – among other insanity." The last item made him shudder. "Ugh, that's creepy. Like people that eat people." Their icy silence gave him goosebumps. "Uh, hello?"

"Reading now," Winnie advised flatly.

"Oh. Heh. You sound like me sometimes." He also looked down at the page – the entry was about screaming mushrooms – and tilted his head. "It's weird, though. A lot of stuff we've run into hasn't been in here."

"I'm finding it hard to believe any of this," Sue pointed out as she turned to another entry. "It all seems impossible." She looked up, as did Winnie, when Dipper snorted.

"Sorry," he apologized, thumbing over to the cooler in the corner near the door. "Just thinking of that sign. I understand what you mean, though. None of it makes any sense... and then it _happens_ to you."

"But how..." Winnie rubbed at her hair and sighed. "You're right, none of it makes sense. We certainly never ran into things like this back home."

"Gravity Falls, yo. Strangest place on Earth," he chuckled weakly. Noises from beyond the curtain startled him – Grunkle Stan was chatting with a tour group. He sounded remarkably upbeat. "Oh, I forgot, a group's coming through. You wanna take this into the living room?"

Winnie nodded. "If you wouldn't mind." Journal in hand, they retreated through the door and sat at the round table to confer. "This is very close to insane," she muttered to Sue. "What is going on around here?"

The red-eyed woman tugged at her bangs in thought. "We could ask the pit. Perhaps the two things are related."

"Perhaps." Soos walked in from the kitchen with a can of Pitt in his hand, forcing them to drop the conversation. "Hello."

"'Sup, dudes?" He saw the journal and smiled. "Haha, yeah, I kinda had that look on my face first time I read it too. You get used to it. My favorite one is the vegetarian Venus Fly Trap."

Sue drooped back in her chair and stared at the ceiling. "My mind is boggled. Where is all this stuff?"

"Everywhere! Just gotta look. Bunch of it hides in the forest." He paused for a drink, during which he thought it a good idea to be curious. "So, what's your story? You were pretty quiet at the party."

"We're from Iowa," Winnie stated, never looking up from the journal.

Detecting her intent, Sue spoke next to begin a set of back and forth lies. "Sioux City, to be exact."

"The cemetery there is haunted."

"Most of the ghosts are pretty shy."

"Many don't even know words."

"We thought Gravity Falls would be quieter."

"But it's much, much louder."

"We want to know why."

"Perhaps you'd like to help." It was Winnie who finished the chain. Both twins finally looked over at Soos just to see his reaction.

His jaw was dropped, his hand was raised, but words failed him for several seconds. "Okay when they do that it's cute. When you do it it's kinda scary. No—no offense."

"You're not the first to tell us that," Sue replied with a rather dark grin.

Mabel popped through the door, oinking in tune with Waddles until the atmosphere stopped both cold. "Whoa. Sure is-" An appropriate word escaped her. "-weird in here, I guess. Oh, you lookin' at the journal?" She darted over to examine it with them. "Ooo, the fairies. We got into a fight with 'em after Soos accidentally iced one. Good times." She ignored his nervous laugh with a smile. "They were using some freaky magic or something... but we're all cool now. Just as long as Soos stays away from the woods near the lake."

"Is that so," Winnie said, her eyes glittering dangerously.

"Um..." Mabel backed away to stand with the handyman, head tilted. "Way to sound scary."

Sue tried her best to be reassuring. "Oh, that's just her thoughtful voice." She looked back down at the pages. "Do you think we could meet them?"

Mabel shrugged at her. "I dunno, I guess? All they said was no Soos in their neighborhood. You gotta be careful, though, they're really strong."

"Y-yeah, don't let their compact and adorable nature fool you," he agreed, looking somewhat pale.

Everyone glanced over as Dipper poked his head in. "Mabel, can I borrow you for a sec? Grunkle Stan wants to pickpocket someone and he needs your cuteness to distract them."

She rolled her eyes with a loud groan. "Doesn't that sound legally ambiguous. Maybe I can talk him out of it. Come on, Waddles."

In a few seconds it was just Soos and the identical twins once more. Sue closed the journal as they both stood. "Make sure Dipper gets this back, would you?" she asked politely.

"Sure. Yep. See you ladies later?" he asked, a bit unsure.

Winnie dropped a terse "Yes," and nothing else as she lead Sue outside and to the car. "I'm driving."

"Okay." Sue's face was unusually grave. "You think these things are really able to use magic?"

"We're about to find out," she replied while shifting into gear, "and we'd better be prepared."

* * *

The fog of sparks in Gravity Falls traveled through their brains like stars in the night sky as Winnie drove to the lake. New ones lit up and faded as they went, but as they drew nearer a chunk of the cluster distinguished itself from the rest. Sue's brow began to furrow. "I guess something or other is over there."

Winnie's eyes darted between traffic and mysterious stings of feeling. "Did you notice the date for the first section of that entry? It bothers me a little."

"Oh?" She needed a moment to recall it. "June 1963. Hrm. I wonder..."

There was no more time for questions; they had arrived. While the western shore of Lake Gravity Falls was a cliff, the east side featured a narrow, but thick strip of trees between itself and the town. A few people dotted the shoreline as they stalked toward the woods, tanning or fishing or playing volleyball. Sue noted Pacifica amongst their number, lying under a pink umbrella and apparently asleep. Unlike their last visit, the twins attracted little attention.

For that, Winnie was thankful. "Good call on the car," she said lowly to Sue as they skulked into the forest. They looked up at the majestic firs. "Smells familiar."

"If you can call it a smell." She looked back over her shoulder at the beach – what little of it was now visible through the trunks, at least. "If they're here, how do we get them to come out?"

Winnie shrugged at her. They both felt the creatures all over, like a swarm of invisible fireflies hiding in the branches. "Let's see how well they regard trespassers."

Pressing on grew more difficult the farther they went. Not only were the trees thicker, but the undergrowth became a sea of thorns and brambles, ankle-high, that the twins had to dance their way through until they became too widespread to navigate. Birds were the only animals they encountered now, and those stayed high above in the canopy to fill the air with song. "We're not walking from here," Sue pointed out. "We'll have to fly."

"Mm. Let's see if detection goes both ways." Winnie's sneakers detached from the mossy earth. Together they hovered on, about a foot above the tangled mess. A pink streak of light flashed before them for an instant. "There's one."

"I got it," Sue confirmed, tracking the object more with her sixth sense than with sight. "Above us." A curious, gleaming pink flock of shapes had gathered there, full of tiny humanoids with wings and dresses. They pointed curiously at the women and muttered among themselves with strange voices, almost too tiny to be heard over the rustling leaves. None of their number dared approach.

It didn't matter; the blue-eyed woman was seeing all she needed to see from here. "That sparkle!" she exclaimed. "Now it _looks_ like home."

"I am so very confused," her sister replied. "Why do they feel like the presence in the pit? And in the hospital?" She looked over at Winnie and nodded down toward their hands. "Let's stop hiding it. I bet it looks the same."

"Very well."

In a few seconds, translucent black tendrils sprouted from their hands, eventually growing into a bubble of sparkling shadow that went from their wrists to a little farther than their fingertips. Winnie's glittered with icy blue undertones, while Sue's bore a reddish hue. This aura matched that of the fairies above, save for size and color. At Sue's urging, they decided to fly up closer. "Look, see? We can do it too," she said gently, showing them her hands.

The fairies chirped with shock and scattered – though they didn't fly completely out of sight. Their chatter became fearful and confused – then angry.

"I don't care for your tone," Winnie advised lowly, her fingers curling into fists. She was ignored; the fairies began pulling leaves off the branches. In their grip, the foliage transformed into tiny swords. "Or your actions."

Sue's eyes narrowed warily, but she had to point out a problem. "Sister... there are still people close by."

She issued a sideways glance with her assurance. "We can teach our lesson quietly enough." Her gaze went back to the threat. More fairies were swooping in. There had to be at least a thousand facing them down now, from all sides. "If they're stupid enough to ask for it."

Her answer came almost instantly. The cotton candy cloud surged forth with a whistling flash of blades. The twins threw up their arms to shield their faces, only to have the limbs covered with wounds in seconds. Just as abruptly the attack ceased. Winnie and Sue lowered their battered limbs, having taken so many strikes they were emitting a drizzle of blood onto the ground far below. However, they bore no pain in their expressions. No anguish. There was only resignation.

And a muted form of rage.

"Really," Winnie hissed, letting her arms fall to her sides. "We weren't going to attack you. We were never going to attack you." The cuts began to close up, leaving only crimson stains behind.

"I only wanted to say hello," Sue added, her injuries also fading away with each passing moment. "She's right. We had no intention of hurting you at all." She lifted her left hand, still sheathed in black power. "But now we're mad_._" A fairy zipped unwillingly into her grasp, shrieking all the way. She held up up to her face as it stabbed at her with its minuscule weapon which she flicked away with a glare. From this range, the small creature sounded like a songbird. Its kin, still surrounding them, began to yell with a pleading tone – though even together their chorus was barely louder than the average conversation. "You want my mercy now?" Her own anger gave her pause; she looked to her sister for guidance. "I have a right to be this mad, don't I?"

There was nothing but confirmation in her blue eyes. "Defend yourself. Just don't get carried away. You know the old saying."

"I can do that." She looked back at the squirming, screaming fairy in her hand. With a firm clench and a faint crack of her knuckles, she crushed it to death. The others fell silent with horror – save one, who charged from the crowd and right at their faces.

Winnie snatched it right out of the air – no telekinesis needed. "One more test," she determined, holding it by the ankle as it called for help. "Feels the same."

Sue's eyes widened a bit; she knew exactly where this was going. She adjusted her grip until the fairy dangled between her fingers in the same manner. "Looks the same."

They shared an inexplicable expression then, one whose meaning only they understood. In perfect harmony, they opened their mouths and dropped their captives in, to the screaming horror of the fairies watching. Despite their anguish, none of them tried to save the living one, who wailed all the way into Winnie's maw until her teeth crunched down. They swallowed in unison with an awful sound.

"Tastes the same," Sue noted sadly. "I thought I'd never do that again." Their assailants had scattered. The twins floated gently back down and landed on the nearest patch of bramble-free ground to contemplate what had just happened. "Never thought I'd be attacked again, either. Why would they do such a thing?"

"Perhaps they were afraid of us. It wouldn't be the first time." Winnie focused on the dying twinkle in her stomach. "We have a problem. This is our power, for lack of a better term. Why is it here?"

Sue nodded while looking around. "And why is it everywhere?"

"Mm. We've got a lot of exploring to do."

Despite that, for some minutes they just stood around, considering the implications. Sue decided to go with what they knew to be fact. "It didn't come in with us. It's been here for fifty years. At least. Either it grew here on its own, or it found another way in. Maybe that's what the voices in the pit were saying to us."

"Which leads us right back to the Mystery Shack," Winnie said with a glower. We've got to find some way of breaking this to them. I can't see any other option." Her lips pursed with disdain at the thought, so she went to a more immediate matter. "I don't think we can go back out there looking like this," she sighed at her bloody arms. "We should find somewhere to wash off."

"Yes..." Sue stared off into the wooded distance. The birds were now silent. "We'd better start building appearances to keep up. Who knows how long we'll be here."

Winnie joined her in gazing, though she was looking back toward the lake. "Mm. The vacation is over. Gravity Falls is officially our problem now." Her sight began to wander as they walked back to the lake. "I think I agree with you. I do feel like there are eyes on me in here."

"Isn't it weird?" Sue peered through the trees, checking for witnesses as they went. "Maybe we should ask about that, too."


	9. But Wait, There's More

For much of that night and the next morning, they stayed out of the oppressive heat and ruminated at home, debating – sometimes silently – about their next course of action. Winnie had taken the position that there wasn't a whole lot else they could do besides start asking hard questions, while giving up some additional truths about themselves in exchange.

Sue did not agree. "If they talk, aren't you worried about shattering everyone's perception?" she asked after the latest round of debate. "Remember what happened the last time one of us did that."

Her words hit Winnie right where it hurt. She folded her arms and frowned into her lap. "I know. But what we're feeling isn't supposed to be here. They know the place better than we do." She glanced over to the dormant TV. "You've altered things since we arrived, right?"

"Only what was necessary."

Winnie scowled faintly. "Doesn't it seem different?"

Sue tilted her head. "I hadn't really paid attention, to be honest. Why?"

"Try it. Tell me what you feel."

With a shrug, she looked at the TV and lifted her hand. A snap of her fingers caused it to fold up and shrink into a silvery teapot, which she suspended in the air. "Wow. It _doesn't_ feel quite the same, does it? It's not even whispering at me." Another snap brought the object back to its original form. "It's... it's kind of like clay."

"Exactly. Gravity Falls is very squishy. And not just Gravity Falls," she stated, nodding out the window at the BMW in the driveway. "I had no problem at all changing that thing – and we were well out of town when I did. This whole world is so pliable."

Sue rubbed at her arm thoughtfully. "Oh. That could be a problem."

"Now you understand why I'm so anxious. If we don't figure this out... the world as these people know it could cease to exist. We have to make sure the power isn't spreading." Winnie's expression grew distant. "And..."

"You're trying to atone, too. I understand." Sue reached over and gave her a pat on the knee. "I wish I'd been there. Maybe... maybe we could have found some other way to stop it."

Her voice grew weak and awkward. "I know."

Silent seconds trundled by, which turned into minutes, then nearly half an hour. Sue couldn't save them with a change of subject this time; the topic at hand was one of her sister's greatest regrets. There was only one way to fight it: hugging. Just as they embraced, however, a thumping knock erupted from the front door. Winnie grunted with annoyance as she rose to answer. "I am in no mood for this right now." However, the person standing behind it was enough to replace her anger with surprise. "Mister Corduroy?"

The mountain disguised as a lumberjack looked genuinely _timid _standing there, with hands wringing and a distinct inability to make eye contact. "Miss... ah, Winnie? I didn't mean to... uh..."

Wendy suddenly leaned out from behind him, an apologetic grin plastered on her face. "Sorry. I couldn't stop him. I was lucky I was able to make him wait _this_ long."

Sue joined her sister at the door, head cocked curiously. "Oh, hello. What's this about?"

Words were well beyond his reach, but the relieved expression he bore said quite a bit. The twins came outside, and together they all waited on him to speak. "Her name was gonna be Diana," he finally choked out. "When I was born she would have been eleven years old."

"...I get it." Sue took him by the hand and smiled. "That was your sister we heard."

"Yeah. I wish she'd made it. Wendy coulda had a mom after..." Rendered speechless by the pain, all Manly Dan could do was sit down and struggle to contain his tears. Wendy came over to give him an awkward half-hug. "We never knew how she died, you know? Never charged him with her death, but my mom always had doubts. I'm just happy she was able to say goodbye before she moved on." He stood abruptly, leaving his daughter hanging on his back.

"Hey!" she protested, dropping off. "Man, you gotta warn me next time."

"How can I repay you?" he boomed dramatically. "You got trees that need choppin'? Oh, I'll chop those trees. Chop 'em real good."

"We can chop our own trees," Winnie replied, arms crossed. "Like I said to Wendy, there's no need to thank us. All we did was hear the voices."

"You better think of something," Wendy advised with a smile. "He ain't gonna stop until you do."

"Hrm..." Sue looked from side to side, a hand on her hip as she considered options. Her eyes went to the brick exterior. "We've been meaning to pressure wash the house, but-"

Dan didn't give her a chance to finish. "I'll make that dirt regret being born! Come on, Wendy."

She stared at him helplessly. "Are you nuts, man? It's a million degrees out here!"

"We'll get the equipment," Winnie sighed, leading Sue back into the house.

They conjured up a washer and a few rolls of hose from a pile of junk in the closet in the hallway leading out of the living room – a closet with a small stack of gold bars in the back right corner. Hauling all this to the eager lumberjack and his not-so-eager daughter took three trips, but in a few minutes they were at work on the front, starting with the section covered by the porch roof. The twins watched their progress for a while. "Look at him go," Sue commented, her brow cocked. "I didn't think you could clean something that fast."

Winnie nodded idly. "Mm. Maybe they'll be done when we get back."

"Where are we going?" By the time she looked over, her sister was already on her way to the car. "Wait for me!" Her tone had gotten grumpy by the time she started buckling up. "Sister! Would you mind filling me in?"

"You said we shouldn't fight them."

Sue's face screwed up. "Fight who?"

She glanced up at the mirror and backed out, taking off down the hill. "Mabel and Dipper. Let's see if you're truly right about them being able to help us."

Yes, she recalled saying it, but Winnie's sudden acceptance of the idea left her a little anxious. "Are you..."

"The fairies altered matter too. Maybe they've seen it happen already." Winnie glanced about as the town moved past outside. "Having the Corduroys clean the house should buy us enough time. I don't think they should hear this."

"I see. I guess it couldn't hurt to ask." Sue relaxed and allowed her attention to wander. It landed on her arms, which were as unmarred as they'd been before the fairy attack yesterday. "Those little swords of theirs were sharp."

"I wanted to vaporize those little bastards."

"Oh?" She tried to seem surprised, but dropped the act after a second. Her eyes grew dark as storm clouds. "So did I. _Nobody_ hurts my sister."

* * *

The rest of their trip passed wordlessly. A tour bus was departing as they came in sight of the Mystery Shack; Stan watched them from the gift shop entrance as they parked and emerged from the red BMW. "Hey, it's you!" he called with a wave. The twins regarded him warily as they approached the steps. "Still mad at me? Listen, uh..." His demeanor shifted into something more grateful – almost vulnerable, they decided.

And for this reason Winnie decided to hear him out – but only after glancing around for the tiny spirit light she'd seen following him at the party. It was missing. "Yes?" she urged, peering at him suspiciously. "Are you about to ask us for money again?"

"No, no. No. I just... Dipper told me what happened at the hospital." He put his cane aside and sat on the top step. "How you saved 'em from the collapse." Abruptly, he raised his hands a little. "I ain't sayin' it's your fault. I know what he did. I don't even know how you all got _in_ there. Doesn't matter. Thanks. For, you know. Not letting 'em get hurt."

At first, they didn't know what to say. Winnie deferred to Sue with a brief nod. "It's nothing, really. We weren't going to let something bad happen to them if we could help it." That was as far as she'd go without knowing the extent of what Dipper had confessed.

"Yeah. Yeah." The old man stood and scowled at the forest. "Look, maybe we got off on the wrong foot. By maybe I mean absolutely." He put on his best smile while offering a hand. "Let's try again. I'm Stan Pines. Just call me Stan. But not Grunkle Stan. I ain't your Grunkle."

They shook it in turn, smiling to various degrees. "I think you already know our names," Sue said uncertainly.

"Winnie and Sue?" He addressed them in reverse order, then blinked at their denial. "Oh. I got it backwards, didn't I."

"Yes," Sue giggled. "Our given names are Summer and Winter."

"Oh. Huh. My real name's Stanford. Hadn't been called that by someone who wasn't Gideon in..." He suddenly became a little crestfallen. "A long time. Meh. Which you like best?"

After a brief, shared glance, Winnie took over the spokeswoman role. "I prefer our full names, to be honest." Sue nodded her agreement after a moment.

"Fine. Winter and Summer. No offense, but your parents must have been hippies." He didn't get the expected chuckle – even awkward laughter would have been better than the utter misery that marred their pale faces. "Oh. Sorry. Didn't mean to... I dunno. Whatever I just did."

"We don't get along very well with our... parents," Winnie explained quietly. "At all."

Stan winced a bit too hard, requiring him to readjust his red fez. "Oooo. Yeah. I kinda know where you're coming from. Still, though, I suggest makin' up with 'em if ya can. You—you never know when the window will close."

The blue-eyed woman's face became unhappy. "Perhaps one day," she said, her tone steely.

"Alllll right, movin' on." Vocally and physically, as he motioned them to follow him into the gift shop. They found it empty, though Mabel could be heard laughing about something behind the living room door. "Guess I was wrong about the inheritance part, huh?"

"We're self-made," Sue clarified, not a hint of irony in her voice. "Dealing in... precious metals. Gold, mostly."

"Nice." Stan's vaguely greedy cackle drew their ire once more. "Hey, I wouldn't take you for a ride. Not after what you did for the kids. I might be a liar, thief, con, cheat, uh... you got it. But I have principles, and – don't you dare tell them this – I love those kids. I'd do anything for 'em."

Sue found his clunky expression of affection adorable. "Oh, how cute. We'll keep your little secret."

"Mm," Winnie groaned, rolling her eyes. However, she was smiling too. "How long have you lived here?"

He trundled behind the register and sat, using the stool normally occupied by Wendy. "Born here. Wandered a little while. All over. Moved back... twenty years ago, I guess it was."

Winnie decided to act while she had the huckster alone, despite Sue's reluctant vibe. "And you haven't noticed anything strange since you returned?"

Stan allowed himself a chuckle. "Strange? Oh, you been hearin' the stories too, huh? Old wives' tales. Legends. Buncha bored knuckleheads makin' up stuff."

The blue-eyed woman moved in for the kill. "Even the dinosaurs?" she asked, hands on her hips.

His eyes got wide with shock. "Eh? Uh... they told you that. And you believed 'em?"

"We looked ourselves," Sue replied quietly. "Dinosaurs aren't very friendly."

He busted out laughing in full this time. "Yeah! Yeah, I'd agree. How'd you get away?" A brief examination gave him what he sure was the answer. "Ah, you probably rock climb and run marathons all day or something."

"Mm." Winnie glanced over as Mabel walked in, but she wasn't prepared for the high-pitched shriek that came next.

"_Grunkle_ _Staaaaaaaaaaaaaa_—oh. There you are. Hey!" She displayed a slightly vacant grin at the two women, although her smile didn't last long. "Wait, is he trying to extort you guys again? Did I use that word right?" After a second she leaned back through the living room door. "Dipper!" she screeched. "What does extort mean?!"

"I'm not extortin' anybody," Stan assured her, a hand over his good ear to absorb her volume. He wasn't the only one trying to shield his ears; the twins were covering theirs with _both_ hands. "Geez, kid, I'm seriously thinkin' about gettin' you cellphones so you can text or whatever you call it."

"There isn't a phone plan on this Earth that can handle me, but thanks anyway," Mabel informed him happily. "So, whatcha doin'? Are—are you buying stuff? I didn't think we had anything you'd want."

Sue tried to match her cheerfulness. "No, we came to see you!"

Winnie, however, did not try. At all. "We need to talk. About... things."

"Feeling like the fifth wheel here," Stan admitted with a sigh. "I gotta go to town anyway. Need to buy some more brown meat. Tell your brother I'll be back later. And don't let Soos on the roof. Ever again." He departed, leaving a cloud of grumbles in his wake.

"Bye!" Once he'd gone, Mabel returned her attention to the twins. "What's up?"

"It's complicated," Winnie answered plainly. "Get Dipper. We need to show you something."

"Ooo! Wait. Are we gonna die?" She smiled wide at their head shaking. "Okay, my ooo stands. Dipper!"

Before long, both sets of twins were enjoying a stroll toward the woods – at least, the younger ones were. Winnie and Sue were unnervingly quiet. "So, what's this about? Did you guys actually go fairy hunting yesterday?" Dipper finally asked as they left the Mystery Shack's clearing behind.

"Yes, we did," Sue nodded. "They didn't like us much."

Mabel darted over to her side with a worried look. "Huh? What happened? Did they do the leaf thing? They totally did, didn't they?!" She checked their bare skin for cuts, smiling when she found none. "Oh, phew."

That was all the indication Winnie needed. "They tried to kill us," she said bluntly, popping Mabel's happy bubble. "So we killed them. Two of them, to be exact."

The Pines stared with slack jaws after her confession. Not even Mabel had the will to make sound. "But—I mean they came at us too," Dipper stammered, "but we just scared them off with Mabel trying to sing."

"I wasn't that bad," she grumbled, but managed to stay on point. "Hold up, though, when we saw them there were like, hundreds. How did you only ice two?"

"Restraint, discipline, or mercy. Call it what you will," Winnie murmured, staring off into the distance. They were well into the trees by now, so the group came to a halt at her direction. "You've seen them change objects?"

"Well, yeah. A bunch of them rushed us with little swords they made out of leaves," Dipper acknowledged with uncertain eyes. "We nearly got our butts handed to us. Did the same happen to you?"

"More or less," Sue shrugged. "We got mad and... well, mad enough to be scary enough to make them stop." Her ruby eyes rolled about as she mentally checked her diction. "I think that made sense."

Mabel detected a serious shift in tone and became uneasy, despite their cheerful surroundings. "What does 'get mad' mean for you guys, exactly? I'm gettin' a bad feeling over here."

Winnie went right to the point, snapping a small branch from a nearby bush and holding it in her clenched fist. "See this?" She snapped with her free hand. The twig spun out into a silver necklace, eighteen inches or so in length. She let it dangle between her fingers.

All Dipper could do was voice exactly what he was thinking. "Um. You can't do that. You're not a fairy. You can't just make things into other things oh gosh my brain's starting to cry." He ducked his head and whined. "My eyes aren't working! That's all. No problem. Just need to wake them up. My... oh boy." For once, his sister was the silent one, standing there with mouth agape and right eye faintly twitching. "Mabel, could you pinch me?"

"I think you broke them," Sue groaned, rubbing her face.

"Are... _are_ you fairies?" Mabel asked at last, her voice wavering. "Like, big... fairy queens! You're – that sounds like Dairy Queen and now I'm hungry." She tried to laugh at herself, but it was almost painfully forced.

"We're not fairies, no." Winnie's tone had gotten quite gentle. In order to make herself less intimidating, she dropped to one knee. "I'm sorry to dump this on you so abruptly, but..."

Mabel was trying to shake sense back into her brother. "What the heck are you?" she demanded. "How did you do that? And can I have it? It's _shiny_." She squealed a little as Winnie handed the necklace over. "Awwwww, yeah. Now talk!"

"We're not like you," Sue said quietly, her eyes on the ground. "We never have been. Normal, I mean."

Dipper let out one more groan before his mind reengaged. "I—okay, Mabel, I'm back. Easy." He needed one more sharp breath to collect his thoughts. "Are you using magic?" Their nod made his brow furrow. "But... _how_? I mean, there are magical things in the journal and all but you certainly aren't one of them."

"A topic for another time," the blue-eyed woman decided. "There's something about this place that speaks to us. Would you help us find out what it is?"

"Iiiiiiii dunno," Mabel said with an open-mouthed frown. "You're all magical now and you talk to ghosts and I dunno if I like where this is going. 'Cause the last guy we met that had powers? Real creepy, man. Reeeeeal creepy."

Her brother nodded along as she spoke, then crossed his arms. "She has a point."

"Oh, but we'd never hurt you!" Sue insisted vehemently. "You're our friends! We don't..." She began to break down, slumping over with her eyes tightly shut. "We've never had many friends." Winnie arrived by her side just as she started to weep.

This confused Mabel to no end. "Why wouldn't you have friends? You're rich. And nice. And lookin' good, if I may say so my own self." She ignored Dipper's raised eyebrow with a smile. "Seriously. You should be super popular!"

"Hold it." He eyed them, at first from a distance, then walked over closer. "Were you born this way?" Winnie was the only one to answer, and that was limited to a nod. Her icy eyes were full of bitterness. "Oh, man."

Sue regained her composure at last, shooing her sister away with a gentle nudge. "Don't worry about our childhoods. You can't tell anyone what we've told you, okay?"

Her request flew right over Mabel's head. "We gotta tell Soos and Wendy!" she blurted out excitedly. "They're gonna freak!"

Dipper scolded her with a smack on the arm. "Did you not hear what she just said?"

"If they promise not to talk, I'm okay with it," Winnie decided. "If you trust them, so can I." Sue nodded her approval a moment later.

She celebrated her victory with a fist pump. "Ha! I win. Anything else you wanna spill while we're here?"

Both women were non-committal at first, but Sue gathered up enough courage to speak after a moment. "Well... I think we'd like to be called our real names now."

"They're your nicknames?" Mabel blinked. "But I like them. Winnie and Sue. Winnie and Sue. Hee hee hee," she giggled, saying the names to the tune of 'Winnie the Pooh'.

"I do too! Anyway, I'm Summer. She's Winter."

Dipper shook his head and moved the discussion back to more important matters. "Whoa, whoa. Look, Winter's a cool name and all," he began, but was derailed by his pun. "Wow, I should be shot for that. Ahem. Are you telling me you can change anything into anything?"

"More or less," Winnie confirmed with a nod. "Complex items are generally harder for us to transform. Also, we need to know an object exists before we can change something into it."

"So you could just make a bar of gold out of..." He looked around for a suitable item, scratching his head. "That mushroom?" Sue pressed it into a glittering yellow ingot with a snap. "H-holy crap. You could singlehandedly destroy the entire economy!"

"That's bad!" Mabel chirped. A second later she looked at her brother for confirmation. "That's bad, right?"

Dipper, checking out the gold bar, tried to lift it. It was almost too heavy for him to budge. "Yes! Yes it is. They're not joking, we gotta be careful about who knows this stuff." He yelped with terror as the metal began to float. "What the heck?!"

"There's also this," Winnie said, her left hand stretched out toward the object. "Telekinesis, I guess you'd call it."

"Sweet Sally," Mabel breathed. "I knew you guys _looked_ like superheroes, but dang. Bro, we're in a comic book!"

He watched Winnie return the gold bar to its original mushroom state and stick it in the ground again before backing off to stand with his sister. "I must be dreaming. Okay. You said Gravity Falls 'speaks' to you. What's that supposed to mean, exactly?"

"We feel the same power all over. The fairies used it, for instance," Sue explained, rocking back and forth on her heels. "What we don't know is why. It's not something we felt back in, um, Iowa."

"Now _this_ is a mystery." Mabel's eyes gleamed with excitement. "Still kinda weirded out by the change-y thing, though. Gonna need a few minutes."

Winnie nodded as she started back toward the clearing. "I understand. We should get home anyway. You can discuss it and give us an answer. We'll send Wendy here once they're done cleaning."

"All right," Dipper shrugged. "Man, I hardly believe what I just saw. I knew Gideon could lift stuff with his mind – even if _he_ got the ability from the stupid amulet Mabel broke. Don't even get me started on shifting matter, either. This is insanity."

"Hmm, I guess we _are_ pretty insane," Sue grinned, seemingly back to her usual self. They walked all the way back to the red BMW together. "Maybe we'll see you later?"

"Maybe! Hey, pick a superhero name!" Mabel encouraged as they got in the car. "Bye!"

"We'll... think about it, I suppose," Winnie said with a shrug.

After they'd driven off, the Pines wandered back into the empty gift shop and let out a simultaneous sigh. "Wow," Dipper mumbled. "I know you said Winnie – uh, Winter – looked like Mystique, but I didn't think she was a real mutant. Or whatever she is. I guess we know how they got rich, though."

"I know, right? They'll _definitely_ be great to have around. They be strong." Mabel's grin faded, however. "Wait. If Gravity Falls is magical, where did the magic come from? Dead people? Is that why they hear spirits?"

Dipper didn't see her expression; if he had, he wouldn't have walked away. "I dunno. Bill can change stuff like that too, at least if he's in your head." The thought made him stop. "Hey, you don't think he has something to do with this, do you? 'Cause that would mean they're either not from Iowa... or Bill has a longer reach than we think."

Mabel folded her arms and scowled. "I don't like the last option very much. And if they were Bill-ified, wouldn't we'd know? Not sure how, but... some way. Like they'd have triangle pupils or something."

"I doubt it. Okay, granted, my journal's entry doesn't mention him being able to do that, but we don't know what Gideon knows. And I guess you'd have to summon him to do anything. I'm pretty sure nobody else knows how." Suddenly his eyes got huge. "Holy mackerel, could you imagine what would happen if he got into one of _their_ minds? Everyone on the planet would be in danger!"

The image was enough to maker her shiver in her sweater. "Dude, stop. I'm getting paranoid enough."

He rested his chin on his arms. "Same. I need to hear what Soos and Wendy think."

"You sure you wanna drag her into this, bro?"

"Not so much drag her into it as prepare her for what we might find – or what might happen. Maybe we should tell Grunkle Stan, too. Things could get really, really dicey if we're not careful."

"So we are gonna help them?" Mabel asked, poking him on the elbow.

"I guess. If they wanted to, they could have made us disappear ages ago. And they did save our lives from that ghost thing." His eyes betrayed the fact that other issues were weighing on his mind. "Do you remember what Bill said after we beat him? 'A day will come in the future when everything you know will change', and whatever?"

"Yeah. What about it?"

He leaned up, regarding her with an anxious stare. "Do you think he meant this?"

* * *

It took all the way until the first red light in town for either woman to break the silence. "I think it went okay," Summer said. Her tone wasn't exactly confident. "They didn't run away screaming."

Winter kept her eyes squarely on the road. "For the moment."

"You're such a pessimist."

She squeezed the wheel a little tighter. "I'm practical." A light bulb went off in her head. "Wait, we forgot to tell them we can't really speak to ghosts."

Summer braced herself as they accelerated through the intersection. "Among other things, but it can wait. They have enough to chew on right now."

Winter accepted this with a small nod. "Fair enough. They gave us something to chew on, too. I want to know about the amulet that Gleeful boy had. And why his name keeps coming up. We should have a talk with him."

Before long they were heading back up the hill. Upon cresting it, both women tilted their heads at the additional vehicles near their mostly-clean house, all parked along the sidewalk. Dan Corduroy's muddy silver truck was among them, but the others were unfamiliar. After parking in the thankfully unblocked driveway, they emerged and looked around. While Wendy was audible around back, as was her father, the owners of the other vehicles were absent.

"Um... what's going on?" Summer asked, squinting at the cars as she tried to remember whether or not she'd seen them before.

"I don't know, but I don't like it." Winter bolted for the front door with her sister in hot pursuit. What she found behind it nearly made their hearts leap from their chests. The living room was full of people, many of which they recognized from the party – and those familiar faces all had twinkling companions that night. The twins checked for golden lights, but found none.

"'Scuse me, but you're the ghost whisperers, right?" Lazy Susan asked, rising from the sofa to meet them. "We think we've got ghosts too! Can you help?" The rest of the crowd began to raise the same question.

Dumbfounded, Summer emitted a polite, but surprised noise and ushered her sister back out the door. She closed it and held it shut with her strength in case anyone tried to follow them out. "Looks like the Corduroys are hopeless at keeping their mouths shut," she grumbled angrily. "Sister! What do we do?!"

Winter let out a low, long sigh. "Answer what we can," she replied, looking at the door, "and lie about the rest. We're good at that."


	10. Everything You Know is Wrong

It was two PM by the time a tired Wendy arrived at the Mystery Shack. The stillness inside the gift shop was such that she figured she was the only one here. Going into the living room proved her wrong; Dipper, Mabel, and Soos were at the round table, all staring her down. "Uh... hey guys. What's happening?" she greeted them nervously. "Mister Pines got arrested, didn't he. I knew it was coming. What's he going away for?"

"Nah, he's still shopping in town," Dipper sighed. "Shut the door, would you?"

"Uh, sure." She took the last empty seat at the table after obliging him. "Am I about to be fired? Look, man, I gotta keep this job. I don't wanna end up cutting down trees for the Northwests all summer. That would seriously blow."

"Nobody's firing you," Mabel assured her. "...I mean none of _us _are gonna fire you. I don't think we have the authority."

"And you're the only one Stan trusts with the money besides himself," Soos added. "Nah, dawg, this is _much_ weirder."

Dipper leaned closer, turning the seriousness up to eleven. "Wendy, what I'm about to tell you cannot, under any circumstances, leave this room. Understand?"

Something did leave: the color, from her cheeks. "Uh. You guys are starting to scare me," she admitted with a nervous smile.

Despite the boy's drama, it was Mabel who spilled the beans. "Winnie and Sue have superpowers!" she exclaimed. "They can move things with their minds! Change mushrooms to gold! All sorts of wacky junk!"

Her face went blank and stayed that way for some time. Then the laughs came, weakly at first. "Yeah. Sure. I know they look jacked, but come on, man."

"We're totally serious!" Mabel insisted. "We watched them do it. Dip's brain is still kinda broken."

"At one point I thought I might have turned into a banana," he confirmed with his hand raised.

"You're all serious?" She peered at Soos. "You saw 'em too?"

"I'm relying on trustworthy second-hand information," he replied, thumbing at the Pines. "If they say it happened, it happened. I don't put anything past this place."

"I was just at their house!" Wendy countered. "They weren't acting strange at all, just talkin' to every-" She became pallid again as her voice broke. "Uh... uh-oh."

"What?" Dipper rose and went to her side. "What? What happened? I don't wanna hear 'uh-oh' right now. Was there an explosion? Did somebody die?"

The redhead cocked a brow at him. "You really like to jump to the worst possible conclusion. Look, my dad _might_ have told some people that they talk to ghosts. Just a few. Like... twelve. And they all came over to their house."

"Holy cow," Mabel sighed, sinking nose-deep into the neck of her sweater. "And y'all call me a blabbermouth."

"Dang it! I'm gonna call them. Can I borrow your cellphone?" He dialed hastily after Wendy handed it over. "Oh man. Oh man... hello!" he yelped the moment the ringing stopped. "Which one of you—Winter! Hi!"

Wendy was a little confused. "Who's Winter?" she asked lowly.

"That's Winnie's actual name," Soos advised.

"Oh. Huh. Pretty... _cool_." The redhead emitted a self-satisfied chuckle – which Mabel strangled with displeased squinting. "Sheesh. I thought it was funny."

Meanwhile, Dipper was in his own little world, pacing around in front of the recliner. "Uh huh. Uh huh. Great. Good to hear. Yeah, we're all here now. Yes, I promise she won't tell. Right. Okay, I'll let you be. Huh? I mean, we can't _stop_ you, but Mabel's gonna hate it. Okay. Okay. No, no, we're fine. Uh huh. Gonna talk about it right now. Okay. Bye." He came back, relinquished the phone, and plopped into his chair. "I guess they told everybody what they wanted to hear. They're all gone."

Mabel, having heard her name come up, wanted to know why. "What am I gonna hate?" she asked suspiciously.

"Uh... they wanna talk to Gideon about the..." He froze, looking at Wendy. "Oh, you haven't heard this before. Welp. You better prepare yourself."

She shifted nervously. "For what?"

Groaning, Mabel slammed her arms together and explained. "He used a magical amulet thingy to try and turn Dipper into dork-goo. Made him able to do telika... talake... teeleekeenee..."

"Telekinesis," Dipper finally corrected her. "The power to manipulate objects with your mind. Winter and Summer seem to have that ability naturally."

"Are you friggin' kidding me?" Wendy laid her head on her arms and whimpered for a few seconds. "I wanna go home. I mean... home a few days in the past, when stuff was still stupid and boring."

"Well, we could have arran-" He squeaked with surprise as Mabel muffled him with a sleeve.

"Don't you dare," she warned. "This is gonna get bad enough. One thing at a time, or else you might kill the poor girl."

"Question," Soos interjected politely. "What exactly do our seasonally-named buddies want us to do? They've got all the _pow__eeeee__er._" Everyone waited for his hands-to-the-sky dramatic posing, attached to the word 'power', to end.

Once it had Dipper leaned back, his demeanor becoming incredibly studious. So studious, in fact, Mabel groaned once more and tried to whack him. "Hey! I'm thinking, man!"

"I know that look, bro. Who died and put you in charge?" she fired back. "We ride _together_. As equals! Even if I'm better." They all looked toward Wendy, whose head was still down. "My bad. You don't have to ride. Are you okay in there?"

"Just give me a second," she moaned. When they proceeded to do just that by remaining silent and staring at her, she lifted her head. "You want an answer _now_?"

"Sort of," Dipper nodded. "If you say yes, then you'll get to read the journal and it might make you cry."

"But we'll be there for moral support!" Soos assured. Both he and Mabel gave her two thumbs up.

The redhead slumped back in her chair and muttered incoherently to herself for a moment. "Terrific. I... well, they did help dad. And it's not like I can unsee everything I already saw. Sure, why not? May as well find out how deep the rabbit hole goes," she concluded with a weak laugh.

"All right!" Mabel stood in her chair, pointing at the ceiling. "The first meeting of the..." Her face dropped. "The first meeting of the... Gravity Falls... hmm." She sat back down and suddenly looked as thoughtful as her brother. "Gravity Falls Investigation... nah. Mystery Incorporated? That's Scooby-Doo. Huh."

Dipper, emerging from his own reverie, rolled his eyes at her. "Right. Whatever our name is, we know stuff those two don't. And they probably know stuff _we_ don't. The way I see it, everyone can get something they want from working together. Besides, if anything tries to murder us, we've got way more firepower with them on our side."

"Murder us? Awesome," Wendy sighed. "It's been like three minutes and I'm already regretting this."

Soos flashed a smile while patting her on the shoulder. "Aw, don't be blue. Most of it's fun! Some of it isn't, gonna be honest. Okay, most might be a stretch. A large amount. A simple majority. A fair num—uh... I'd better shut up now."

"You'll be fine," Dipper assured her. "I think." Her glare caused an anxious chuckle. "No, no, you totally will! We'll all be fine. Nothing bad could possibly happen."

Mabel was still trying to come up with a title for their impromptu union. "Mystery Buddies?" she asked the ceiling, idly twirling her hair. "Pff. That's dumb."

"Look, just show me the journal," Wendy sighed. "And somebody order a pizza. Maybe some food will help me deal."

* * *

It was Winter, fresh off her phone call with Dipper, having a sullen moment in the passenger seat of the BMW this time. A glance was cast up at the pizzeria in front of her; Summer was visible through the plate-glass windows, seated and waiting for their pies to be completed. While seeing her drew a smile, looking back down at her palms snatched it away. "When they look like this, I almost feel... human," she murmured.

Someone walked by beyond the windshield and entered the shop. A middle-aged man with brown hair, extremely well-dressed, but that was all the mind she paid to him. The next thing to break her concentration was a gentle tapping on the window.

To her surprise, it was Pacifica. "Hey," the girl greeted awkwardly once the glass between them had dropped out of the way. "What's your name again? I know it starts with either an 'S' or a 'W'..."

The blue-eyed woman tilted her head curiously. "Winter." For a moment the car behind Pacifica caught her attention; it was a massive black sedan whose ostentatious nature was impossible to miss. Probably something made by Rolls-Royce, she decided. "What is it?"

"You talked to my mom earlier, didn't you?"

She called up the memory. Penelope Northwest's odd, semi-permanent smile was hard to forget, even if the rest of her features blended away into the fog of strangers asking her and Summer for solace. "I did. Why?"

Pacifica made a show of examining her fingernails. Her expression was almost dismissive, but Winter knew she was struggling with something regardless. "Oh. She just seemed, you know... happier, than usual. Said you helped a lot. That's all." The blonde would go no deeper, and instead let her eyes run over the red sedan. "You buy cars as often as I buy shoes. I like your style."

"It's my sister's," she said quietly. "Was there something else you wanted?"

"Nope. See you around," she replied with a smile – and then failed to walk away. Her eyes became more and more pensive with every passing second. "I mean..."

Winter's gaze remained on her all the while. "Yes?"

"Uh, nothing. Thanks or whatever. For helping my mom."

Her tone was astonishing in its fragility, but Winter managed to prevent herself from letting Pacifica _know_ that. "You're welcome." She considered the conversation over, but the blonde continued to hang around. "...what?"

She sighed, tossing her ponytail. "Listen, you two seem like private people, so here's a heads up: the TV station wants to do an interview with you."

Winter cocked a brow. "How do you know that?"

At last, the blonde put on a grin that seemed to match her personality. "We own the TV station."

She rubbed her face and sighed lightly. "Of course. Can we say no?"

"Sure, but they've probably got enough by now to do the story anyway." Pacifica looked over as the man from before came back out, holding three pizza boxes. "About time. I'm out. See you around."

Summer arrived with their own order seconds after the black limousine departed, filling the interior with all sorts of pleasant aromas. "This all smells so good! I know it's pointless for us to eat, but it sure can be fun." She handed the boxes to her sister and went about buckling up, only to stop when Winter didn't say anything. "Hello?" she called, looking over. "You're quiet. What did that Pacifica girl want? I saw you two chatting."

"To say thanks. And Dipper called. They're talking about our request." Her eyes were planted firmly ahead. "Sister, we might have a... problem."

"Oh no. Our visit here has been so very trouble free," she grumbled sarcastically. "What is it this time?"

Winter extracted her phone from her jeans pocket. "Pacifica told me the TV station wants an interview. You need to learn our last name."

She snapped her fingers in frustration – then paused to make sure nothing around her had changed – and sighed. "I knew that woman was a reporter! Can't we say no?"

"We could, but then we might look suspicious. I mean, even more than we already might." Her thumbs were hard at work, tapping away on the screen. "Let's go home before we somehow become national news."

"Oh boy." Summer started the car and looked back over her shoulder while preparing to leave. "So much for being incognito."

Winter's eyes narrowed, though she did allow herself to take a curious sniff of the pizza in her lap. "Right. As long as we don't become famous for _other_ reasons, I think we can handle this."

* * *

As the day dragged on, Mabel would peek into the living room to keep an eye on Wendy. The latest such check revealed her staring off into space with bags under her eyes. Her face was white as a sheet. The redhead was still seated at the round table, as she had been since Dipper showed her the contents of the journal. Wincing, she withdrew back into the gift shop and walked over to her brother at the register. "Uh, bro? I think we killed her."

He blinked with surprise. "Is she _still_ sitting there?"

"Yep. Doesn't look good." They looked over as Stan lead a fresh herd of suckers through the curtain. "Oh boy. I'll handle these guys, you go see to your girlfriend."

Dipper gave her a grateful smile at first. "Thanks—wait. She's not my girlfriend." Grumbling at her laughter, he hopped down, squirted through the throng, and nearly fell into the living room. He gingerly approached the redhead, almost too scared to speak at first. "Wendy? Hey? You with me? Weeeeeendy..." She didn't respond at all, not even when he sat in the chair next to her and waved a hand before her face. "Earth to Wendy Corduroy. Wendy. Come on, now." He searched his brain for something to prod her with. "Oh no, Robbie's here!"

"I'm n-not around," she finally whimpered, although her body stayed locked in position. "I..."

"Oh boy." There was no choice now; he reached over and latched on to a shoulder. "Wendy. Wendy," he urged, shaking her gently. "Wendy, come on. It's almost five o'clock. Your dad's gonna be worried if you don't call, isn't he? Won't he come over here and kill Grunkle Stan?" At last she turned to regard him with empty eyes. "That a girl. You're alive. It's okay."

"I live in a nightmare," she breathed. "How can I... gnomes? Freakin' gnomes! The triangle dude! A squash that feels! _The fishing fish_!" It was too much. She began to break down, dropping her face into her hands.

"Oh boy." Dipper wrapped her up in an awkward hug, wondering how long he could stay conscious before all the blood rushed to his cheeks. "It's okay. I mean, hey! We haven't even seen most of the stuff in there. Nope. No zombies for miles!" He winced at her sudden sobbing. "Whoa, what? What did I say?"

Wendy blew her nose on his hat before answering. "What if I'm a zombie, man?!"

While the act grossed him out, he maintained his cool. "Um, I kind of doubt you're a zombie. You're too chill." He tried to reassure her with a stilted laugh. Surprisingly, it worked; she stopped weeping and took a few deep breaths. "See? You're fine. Totally fine."

She gently extracted herself and slumped over onto the table. "How do you guys handle this crap?"

"Honestly, on my end? Constant exposure to Mabel." She laughed this time, causing him to smile. "I'm serious. You spend enough time around her, you can smile at anything."

"Heh. I'll take your word for it, I guess," she mumbled, wiping her eyes. "I thought the _ghosts_ were bad. This other junk is a whole new level of weird."

Dipper spread his arms wide. "Yeah, yeah it is. But! Look around. The world's still here. So what if it feels completely different? It's still Gravity Falls."

That was just enough to make her smile. "True. And even if it is insane, still not as depressing as findin' out about what happened... back in the day." She perked up, but thinking of that particular tragedy forced a shudder. "Yeesh."

"No kidding." He backed off a bit to let her breathe some more. "You all right?"

Wendy offered a weak shrug. "I'll get there. I... I think." Her progress at the moment was limited to drifting over to, and sitting in, the old recliner. "Phew." The news was coming on. "Yeah! This'll help," she grumbled derisively. "Where's the remote?"

He walked over to help her look. "We still have a remote? I haven't seen the stupid thing in days." While they searched, the dulcet tones of the Channel 7 Action Express News Team's theme song provided a nice, numbing background noise for them to ignore – until the top story began. A picture of the destroyed hospital, surrounded by the crews working to clean it up, caught their eyes.

"Wait, what?" She turned up the volume manually and sat on the carpet. Dipper joined her a moment later. "Man, this topic just ain't gonna die, is it."

"Our lead today: human remains have been discovered in the ruins of the former General Hospital building," Shandra Jimenez said gravely. The image switched from the studio to a live look at the scene. "Authorities would not comment on the number, only that 'there's more than one' and 'it is kind of icky in there'."

The rest of the brief piece was lost to Wendy's disdainful groan. "Ugh! That place is cursed!"

"Ahaha, y-yeah! Sure is!" Dipper smiled anxiously at her curious glance. "What? I didn't do anything suspicious up there a few days ago. Nothing happened. Nope."

Her brow raised slightly. "Uh... if you say so."

Shandra interjected before he could dig himself into a bigger hole. "In more positive news..."

"Yes!" they both shouted. "Come on! Daddy needs a cute dog on a unicycle!" he added hopefully.

"Oh yeah? I want a-" Wendy fell silent and looked down at him, her face screwed up. "Did you just call yourself daddy?"

"Wha—no I did not. Not at all."

"Gravity Falls' newest residents are causing a stir with their general politeness and apparent ability to speak with the dead," Shandra explained cheerfully. A picture of the identical twins, standing in front of the red BMW, appeared over her left shoulder as she spoke. "Summer and Winter Weiss, seen here looking absolutely _fabulou__s_, have taken the town by storm. This reporter has it on good authority that not only are the Weiss sisters even richer than our own Preston Northwest, they're also not complete jerks."

The screen switched again, this time to Lazy Susan being interviewed in the diner. "You can talk to them like real people!" she praised. "They even gave me a hug! I like hugs!"

Next up was an interview with Toby Determined outside of the _Gravity Falls Gossiper_ building. "Bless those unnervingly athletic girls," he said, dabbing at his eyes with a tissue. "Summer said I looked cute in my glasses. I haven't been called cute in fourteen years!" After a quick breath, he tacked on a hasty, whispered, "_ShandraI'vealwayslovedyoupleasecallme_!"

The screen came back to the woman of his affection, who shivered with disgust. "But that's not all. Several people – including this reporter – paid a visit to the Weiss residence earlier today in hopes of receiving help with deeply uncomfortable spiritual issues."

"Is this getting really weird for you?" Wendy asked, leaning away from the TV.

Dipper shook his head. "In the context of today? No, not really."

Dan Corduroy popped up on screen. It looked like he was being interviewed in front of the family cabin. "I told you they could talk to ghosts! They knew things, man. Makes you feel real good. Not like the troll boy. No, no, these two have a _real_ gift. They probably don't even spy on us, either."

Shandra appeared again, smiling brightly. "You said it, Manly Dan." A new graphic appeared over her left shoulder – this time it was the child psychic with a red 'x' over his face. "There's been a groundswell of support for the Weiss sisters to host nightly séances on the site of the Tent of Telepathy, formerly owned by humiliated fraud Gideon Gleeful."

Another interview was next, this time with the twins themselves. They were standing next to their car. "I appreciate everyone's... support," Winter said, "but I don't know if we'd do such a thing."

"But we would like to thank everyone who said nice things about our house!" Summer added cheerfully.

Back to Shandra the broadcast went. "Aren't they adorable? You can be sure the Action Express News Team will keep an eye on these two and/or hound them into doing a full one-hour special interrog—I mean interview!"

"Wooooooo!" Mabel screamed from the recliner behind them, tossing the remote in one hand. Waddles was in her lap.

Wendy and Dipper nearly jumped out of their skins. "H-how did you get in here?!" the redhead asked breathlessly.

"I walked. Sure is nice to see everyone warming up to our new buddies, right?" she grinned. "Heeeeee, I bet that got Gideon's goat real good. I almost wish I could see his face."

Dipper had a hand on his chest to calm down. "Maybe, but goat-getting aside, _stop scaring me __half to death_."

"Nope!" Mabel slid off and whistled for her pig. "Come on, cutie! Let's go knit!"

Wendy stared after her as she left. "Man, this stuff just rolls off her like water off a duck's back."

"Most of it does." He decompressed with a sigh. "So, uh, you still in? With the... ugh." Just thinking of the name Mabel had forcibly assigned their little group made him pause and groan again. "...Super Mystery Brothers?"

"I guess." She watched for a moment as the sports portion of the news came on. "If they're really as strong as you said, I'd rather be on their side than not, you know? And I kinda owe 'em for dad, I think."

"All right. Hey, at least we know their surname now. I bet you could do a full background check!" He snickered a little. "Heck, I'll do—er, on second thought, based on how my last internet search went, I'd better not."

Wendy shook her head with a smile. "Pfff. Don't worry. I'm sure they're cool." She gave him a hearty pat on the back and stood. "I'm done, yo. See you tomorrow!"

He gave her a thumbs up. "You bet!" Once he was alone, he looked around with an idle smile. "You know, besides the whole superpowers thing, it might be nice to have someone around to knock the Northwests down a peg. I think that's something we can all get behind."

* * *

If he could see the identical twins at this moment, Grunkle Stan would have been proud. They sat on the sofa, cloning bills from the currency the grateful strangers foisted upon them after their so-called séance. Summer snapped dollars out of the discarded pizza boxes, while Winter made sure none of the serial numbers were duplicates.

"I can't believe you named us after a color," the red-eyed woman muttered.

Winter, busy peering at a twenty, then at her laptop to make sure it appeared correct, frowned a bit. "You said it was fun to say."

"It is! But 'white'? It's kind of dull."

"That's not all it means." She set the bill on a large stack of similar currency. "I think we have enough. We'll keep the gold in reserve, just in case."

Summer dusted off her hands and relaxed against the back of the couch. "Okay. What's next?"

"I'm content to wait on Dipper and Mabel. What about you?"

Her eyes began to wander, but her sight was focused on the presence beyond the walls. "Maybe we shouldn't wait. We could sweep this place in a night. Or less."

Winter folded her arms and sighed. "You're eager."

She didn't yield, and ended up sounding almost exactly like her sister. "I want to help our friends in the pit."

"And we will. Be patient. There's a lot of collateral damage we could cause by acting without thinking."

It was around this time that she understood the source of her sister's restraint – or perhaps reluctance. "I... what happened to _you_ that day?"

Head hung, Winter rose from the couch and walked to one of the large front windows. Her gaze eventually came to rest on the Northwest mansion, looming in the evening light above Gravity Falls like a medieval lord's castle. "I ceded sense to fear. I had to stop what was happening around me, and in the course of succeeding I altered countless lives. I might have saved them, but I murdered their future in the process. I left them with... who knows what."

Overcome with emotion, Summer stood up and approached. "The alternative would have been bloody beyond imagination!"

"It may yet be. We don't know what's happening."

Having no comeback, she resorted to throwing herself at Winter and clamping on tight. "You don't know it will."

She returned the hug with equal strength. "True. I won't let the same thing happen here, though. Not if I can help it."

"I understand. I'll be good." Summer pulled away with a light smirk. "Still. White? Can we change our name?"

Winter rolled her eyes a little, but she too was smiling. "No. I already told you, it means something else."

"What?"

"Roughly?" She walked past and sat down again. "It translates to 'knows'."

"Huh. Summer knows," she pointed at herself, "and Winter knows," she concluded, pointing at her. "Clever. But we're not the only ones."

"We're the only ones with the whole truth," she countered. "We should catch a nap while we can. I want to get started tomorrow."

"Okay." She also sat down and sighed. "You know... we'll have to tell them about the hospital 'ghosts' some time or another."

Winter nodded once and let her head tilt back. "That's the plan for in the morning, actually. It's best to do it sooner rather than later."


	11. He Really Is That Short

The next morning was a Saturday, so when Winter and Summer arrived at the Mystery Shack all was quiet. In fact, it appeared as if everyone in the house was asleep. A relaxing, pleasant silence soaked the clearing, marred slightly by the persistent hum only they could detect and the singing of a few birds.

"I told you it was too early," Summer muttered. "It's a weekend. People like to sleep on weekends."

Winter ignored her, choosing instead to glare through the driver's side window. "It's eight o'clock. They have to wake up sometime."

"Just because _we_ rise so early doesn't mean everyone else does."

Grumbling, she relented to that fact and opened her door. "Fine. Let's go check on our friends in the pit while no one is watching."

On this occasion their entry into the abyss was far more graceful. Summer tumbled in, giggling happily, while Winter decided on a swan dive. This time, the presence didn't try to push them back out, so they had to use their own power as a parachute. Once they reached bottom, it coalesced into the same rainbow blob as before – but now it was scattered through with golden sparkles.

"What are you doing here?" Winter asked them as they flew happily around her head in spite of the vicious, swirling wind.

Summer listened for the answer. "Oh, you found out during the party? Well, that's nice. You've got lots of friends now."

"Mm. How are you holding up?" She nodded a few times at varying intervals while listening. "We know. It's very easy to stick together here. I'm surprised the ground we walk on doesn't warp on contact."

"What if it does?" Summer pondered. She took off her red wedge sandals, frowning when the soles of her feet touched the frigid rock. "It's cold, but it's still rock."

"Good to know." Winter poked at the opalescent cloud. "We haven't forgotten about you. Just be patient with us." A smile appeared as the blob tried to hug them both. "You're welcome. I'm happy the little ones have found a home."

"Yes!" Summer agreed, slipping her shoes back on. "Now if we can just figure out why you were in the hospital in the first place... and why there's magic everywhere else..."

She scratched at her ebony hair with a sigh. "And how to get it home. I wish I knew how to approach Stan besides just asking him. Or tearing the place apart."

"You know, sometimes there's no substitute for a punch!" Winter's annoyed glance made her smile. "You get my point. I don't want to upend Dipper and Mabel's lives by flattening their home either."

"Especially since it seems someone may have tried that before." The blue-eyed woman waved toward the surface as a thought occurred. "Before we go, how long have you been down here?" She frowned at the answer. "Makes sense. I suppose it _would_ be hard to tell time in a place like this. I was just curious. We're heading up. Hang in there."

The blob bounced happily and faded away, taking the gold twinkles with it into the darkness. As it had the last time, it gave the twins a powerful boost back toward the surface, but now they rode it full speed all the way to the top until they shot from the pit like cannonballs. They slowed to a stop about fifty feet above the clearing, scouring it for witnesses. Upon seeing none, they dropped to the earth and started for their car. "So, what? Do we just sit out here and wait for them?" Summer inquired on the way.

"I've got nothing better to do, do you?"

"Hey!"

The twins looked around for the source of the greeting; it was Dipper's voice, but he was nowhere to be found until they looked up. He waved to them from a platform halfway up the roof, then took a sip from a can of Pitt. "Nice morning, huh? What's up? Wait... did something bad happen?"

"No," Winter assured him loudly. She nodded to her sister. "Come on." They flung themselves into the air, easily reaching his perch.

"Gah!" he yelped, stumbling back as they landed. "You can do that! You did it!"

"Well, yes, why couldn't we?" Summer asked curiously. "We can affect ourselves. We _are_ made of matter."

"I guess that makes sense." He caught his breath and sat on the lounge chair. "So, what _is_ up? I mean, besides you guys. Ha! Heh."

Winter brushed his joke aside with a frown. "May as well get this over with... we want to look into something. You might want to come along."

"You probably _won't_ like it, though," her sister added.

Dipper's brow furrowed deeply. "I already don't. What?"

"The hospital."

He stared at them in disbelief. "Why? It's over. It collapsed. The ghosts are free. We are _done_ there. I don't think Mabel could handle revisiting it. I don't think _I _can."

Summer nodded forlornly. "I know, but what we saw weren't ghosts. At least, we're pretty sure. They felt like little wisps of the same power we have."

"Ah—bu—what? What would they be... why would... frack!" he exploded, not sounding too different from his sister when she would lose her cool the same way. "Oh. Oh boy. If they were the same, then... what does that mean?"

"We have no idea," Winter replied, sitting on the edge of the platform. Her sister followed suit shortly afterward. "It seems to be the oldest unusual phenomenon in Gravity Falls. At least, that we know of. It could be a good place to start."

"Yeah." Dipper ran fingers through his hair while thinking. "If the Duskertons were right, that creep started murdering kids in the 1940s. Ugh. I feel sick."

"Do you think _he_ might have a ghost we could talk to?" Summer asked. "I wonder where he's buried. Nothing I looked at ever said."

There was no getting away from the topic now, but he still pouted and groaned about it a little longer. "Depends on where he died."

Winter glanced back at him over her shoulder. "In the prison."

"Really? I think... I think I saw something on Gideon's stupid reality show about how they have a prisoner cemetery. If the family doesn't want the body, they end up burying them there."

"Hmm. We could have a chat with him while we're there," Winter decided.

Dipper fell back onto the lounge chair with a sigh. "Just when I thought I couldn't hate this idea more."

Summer's face screwed up. "Eh, maybe we should fly solo together on this one, sister."

"Fly solo... together?" he blinked. "I know it's twinspeak, it just seems weird not hearing it from Mabel."

"Hearing what from me?" They looked over as she emerged from the entry, still clad in her sleep shirt and halfway falling as she got up off the ladder. It looked like a hurricane had been spinning in her mousy locks. "Hey, don't judge my bedhead. I gotta lot of hair to manage."

"I'm not," he assured her. Winter opened her mouth to speak, but he waved her off. "I got it, I got it. Hey, Mabel, it looks like we might have our first investigation."

She perked up while rubbing the sleep from her eyes. "Ooo! I'm exc—give me a second." A massive yawn split her mouth wide open. "... okay, maybe like a minute."

"They wanna go to the state prison and look at the graveyard."

Her mood darkened in a flash. "Ew. Why? I don't wanna be that close to him. Wait, is he getting transferred to the Moon or something? 'Cause heck yeah, I'd go just to laugh at his stupid face."

"I'm afraid not," Winter cut in. "We want to see if the doctor responsible for the deaths of those children is buried there. And... we want to have a talk with Gideon if possible."

"Bu-bu-bu-bu-bu..." Mabel stammered, lip trembling. "I'm... I'm gonna go lie back down and cry if you don't mind."

"You don't have to go," Dipper reassured her. "She doesn't have to go, does she? Do I?"

"Mm." Winter crossed her arms and frowned. "I'm not sure they'll let us into the cemetery. We might have to break in."

Summer couldn't help but snicker. "Breaking into a prison? Oh. I've done stranger things, I guess."

"Why do you even care?" Mabel demanded sleepily. "I mean, I had just kinda forgotten a little bit about Jerkface McBabykiller."

"Because the things we saw apparently weren't ghosts, they were magic, and they want to know why – actually the more I think about it the more I kinda want to know too," Dipper realized. "Has there been magic in Gravity Falls for fifty years? Seventy? Longer?"

"Good question." Winter rested her elbows on her knees and looked up at the misty blue sky. "Maybe it originates with the fairies. Maybe not. Either way, I'd like to know."

He slumped in thought. "That entry was from... what, June of 1963? Ew, what a coincidence. Granted, that might be just the first time someone saw them and recorded it, though." A glance at Mabel made his head tilt. She seemed to be out on her feet. "Hey. Hey? You still with me?"

"I'm listening," she grunted. "Magic baby fairies founded Gravity Falls in 1963. Got it." She began to tip, so Dipper stood up and eased her down onto the floor. "This bed sucks even worse than I remem—zzzz..."

Dipper smiled at her snoring. "Why does she even bother? I'm the early bird. She's the... I don't even know what kind of bird she is."

"How cute!" Summer giggled. Even Winter had to smirk. "You sleep. Winter and I will handle this."

"All right. Hey, ah, would you..." His voice got low. "Would you turn Gideon into a frog? If possible. And for the love of Nobel take a picture."

"If no one's looking," Winter agreed with a faint grin. "We might get mad at him if he's as bad as it seems."

"Oh, trust me, he's the worst. Good luck – wait!" His heart jumped into his throat as they pushed themselves off the roof abruptly. Upon running over and looking down, however, he saw they were just fine. "Oh, yeah. You're superheroes or sorceresses or whatever. Never mind," he grumbled with amazement, watching as they walked toward their car.

* * *

While Summer drove through Gravity Falls, Winter used her phone to learn as much about the State Prison as possible. Every pause for a red light brought curious looks or happy waves from the passersby. A few even took pictures.

"They're so happy to see us," Summer pointed out with a smile. "Maybe fame isn't so bad."

Her sister didn't even look up. "Perhaps. For now."

"...you are such a pessimist."

"I'm realistic. You will be too, one of these days." Her eyes lit up. "There are visiting hours from noon to four PM each day. It shouldn't be hard to get in if the IDs we forged are sufficient."

She nodded along with the music from the radio. "I'll let you make sure of that. What would be plan B?"

"It's not like the fence can stop us."

Summer grinned brightly. "How exciting."

Their journey continued north, past the affluent areas and onto a winding road surrounded by evergreens. Winter was too busy mining for information to speak much; her sister was too busy enjoying the drive. "Hold on," the blue-eyed woman said. "I've found a list of people buried at the prison."

"Oh?"

Her face dropped with annoyance. "Our man isn't on it."

Summer let off the gas slightly, as if unsure whether the trip was still worth making. "Well then. We can still talk to Gideon, right?"

She shrugged her agreement and put her phone away. "Might as well. He has _some_ relationship with the Pines. Let's go see what it is."

After a few minutes more of wandering through the evergreens, their destination came into view. Formed from the most depressing-looking concrete that Oregon had to offer, Gravity Falls State Prison was somehow less cheerful than the pictures suggested. Even the trees surrounding it seemed to be dulled gray. There was a guard in the sole tower, and the whole complex was wrapped up in the tender embrace of the tallest, beefiest chain-link fence they'd yet seen. In fact, as they got closer, a sign proclaimed it to be electrified.

"Have you ever been electrocuted?" Winter asked as they drove past that sign.

She hesitated to arrange the memories before replying with a nod. "A couple of times. It makes you feel a little weird."

"Maybe I'll grab the fence just to see what it's like. Let's drive by and see what the security situation is."

"Sure."

What she found wasn't encouraging. Cameras were mounted on almost every corner, along with a few searchlights. Guards with dogs – and shotguns – patrolled the perimeter fence on both sides. The top of the fence bore dense spirals of razor wire. "Well, this is annoying. If they do a background check and find out we don't technically exist..." Her face went blank. "Then again, nobody seemed to mind my shady nature when I purchased the house."

Summer squinted at the curves ahead. "Gold blinds people, I think. I'm going to pull off up here."

"All right. Give me your license." She took it and, along with her own, compared it to a picture on her phone. "It all looks like it's in order." Her eyes glanced over all the details – she paid special attention to the address listed to make sure she had it right. "I've never seen a place so driven by documentation," she groaned. In short order, though, a thought made her smile. "I take that back. I've seen _one_ place."

Her sister knew exactly which and started to laugh. "No kidding! She'd be right at home here."

Winter joined her in giggling for a moment. "Oh, I needed that. Let's just see what happens. As long as we can get in, we can move around and cause enough confusion to draw attention away from ourselves."

They decided to leave their car for the meantime and walk briskly back to the prison. The sparks of Gravity Falls were clustered in the distance off to their right, still easily detectable due to the utter lack of anything else nearby. Despite the blue sky above, the air was heavy and grave. "How... pleasant," Summer said quietly. The guardhouse protecting the front gate of the prison was just ahead. "Here goes nothing."

Winter shook her head once. "Not yet. It's too early for them to let us in, but we can at least get a feel for the process." They peeked in through the window, where a male guard sat reading a newspaper.

"Visiting hours start at noon," he droned. And that was it, even after the twins stood there for a moment.

"Oh." Winter, blank-faced, walked away from the prison. Summer only followed a few seconds later. "I'm underwhelmed."

"Seriously." Sound from behind drew their attention. The gate opened for a bus leaving the complex, which paused at the guardhouse. After waiting on it to move for a few seconds, they gave up and kept walking. "Now what?"

Winter just shrugged. "I don't know. I suppose we wait."

"Mrm." Summer looked up as the bus drove past. A particularly pasty-faced boy with enormous white hair caught her eye. "Wait... isn't that..."

All she needed was a glance to confirm it. "Get to the car!" she commanded, breaking into a dash. By staying close to the side and using little bursts of power to keep up their speed, they managed to arrive at their BMW just as the bus did. Summer slapped the car into gear with surprising haste. "You're getting good at this."

"I had a good teacher," Summer replied, smiling at her as she put pedal to metal. The chase was on. Because of the sensation the twins knew the bus was heading back toward Gravity Falls, but not the same way they'd used to leave it. This road had fewer curves and a distinct downward pitch – and seemingly even less traffic. After a few minutes of driving through the endless trees, the bus came to a stop in a small park. 'Park' might have been generous; it was more or less a large clearing with four picnic tables and a small brick building near the back. Summer brought the car to rest a distance away.

"That's definitely him," Winter said, watching about twenty guards usher six prisoners, including Gideon, toward the center of the area. "What's going on?"

"I have no..." she paused as cameramen emerged from the bus. "Oh! That show!"

Her eyes narrowed as she opened the door. "Well, the audience will have to wait."

"All right, friends!" Gideon called over the general murmurs of the crowd. "As soon as daddy gets here – and heaven help me, if there's nuts in that ice cream again I will _destroy_ him – we can begin the filming!" When he glanced over and saw the twins coming, his tone became a lot less friendly. "I thought this place was cleared! Get them out of here! Now! _Nooooooooow_!"

"Uh, this is a public park," one of the guards advised nervously.

"And?" he snapped back. "My tax dollars paid for it! I'm still Gravity Falls' biggest industry and I'm in _jail_! I own you! I own everything!"

"You don't own us," Winter interrupted loudly. All eyes went to them as they stepped closer. "I thought the photos were kidding. Where's the rest of your skeleton?" she asked.

Gideon waddled closer, a bitter sneer on his face. "Oh! Oho. Gravity Falls' new hotness is here to lord their supremacy over poor little ol' me. Ghosts? Is that the best you've got? Please." The other prisoners, who ranged from huge and burly to even more huge and burly, all collected at his back to offer support.

Summer grinned at their snarling. "Oh no. You're all so big and very, very frightening."

"Oh, darling, you might have the guns, but I have the firepower," he snickered, motioning to the armed guards.

Winter crossed her arms and glared. "We just want to talk for a moment."

"About what? I've nothin' to say to you."

They sprung their trap after sharing a glance. "Not even about Stan Pines?" Summer asked.

"Hmm?" He turned and waved at the other inmates to hush them. "Hold on, boys, hold on. You wanna talk to me about Stanford? Well. Color me curious." After thinking on it a moment, he shrugged. "Why not, there's time to kill. Take five!" He started toward one of the tables. "We'll chat over here. Ghost-Eyes, you keep them in line for me."

"You got it, dog!"

"All right then," he wheezed, once they were all seated. It had taken him much longer to get on the bench. "I gotta stop skippin' leg day. Goodness me." Their looks made him glare. "Don't judge! We all can't look like statues."

"Whatever," Winter sighed. "Let's get to the point."

Gideon tented his fingers and attempted to seize control of the conversation. "Stanford. Why would you care about him, hmm? Unless..." His eyes lit up. "Oh my, is he _your_ competition now?"

"Maybe he is," Summer answered with a dark grin. Winter had to fight hard not to roll her eyes at the show.

Just like that, the polite Gideon had returned. "And you want me to spill what I know? Gladly. I'd give back my American Association of People That People Are Pretty Sure Are Psychics Award just to see him burn." He leaned back as if relaxing into a chair, nearly fell off, and yelped while catching himself. "B-beg your pardon... what do you want to know?"

"Why do you hate him so much?" Winter asked.

He waved a hand and huffed. "Hate's a strong word. We've been business rivals for a long time, but I never really—I'm lyin'. I hate him. I hate him something fierce. He has something I want."

Summer tilted her head. "What? His house is a pile of junk and his car's probably older than both of us combined."

"What I'm after isn't monetary, it's... something else." He would go no farther and looked away. "You wouldn't understand."

"We talk to ghosts. Try us."

Gideon blinked at Summer's assertion. "You're... serious? You can't be. Nobody can talk to ghosts. Don't be ridiculous."

Sensing she needed to give him something to get anywhere, Winter leaned forward and whispered, "We know about the journals. We know you had one."

His demeanor changed yet again, landing somewhere between shocked and friendly. "Well, well. I suppose you're more than pretty faces and colored contacts, aren't you?" He tilted closer to Summer. "I do like the red. Suits you. I oughta try some when I get out. Add a little flair to my persona."

Her face screwed up with disdain. "Can we talk about what we're talking about, please? I heard you tried to kill the Pines."

"Only once! And I only really wanted to kill that _boy_." He crossed his arms and pouted, though the look faded with time. "I don't think shrinking someone counts as trying to kill them. I'm sure my lawyers would agree. Now I admit, the robot situation is a little bit more prickly, but..."

Winter was glowering by this point. She nudged her sister for attention. "We're getting nowhere. Let's just wipe them all out and search the Shack."

"D-don't you dare hurt Mabel!" Gideon squeaked angrily. "Feel free to kill the rest of them, of course – heck, have my blessing and send me some pictures – but you leave my queen alone!"

His outburst had given time for Summer to catch onto the act. "They obviously have something we want. If they won't play nice, we'll just take it from them."

There was no stopping the tantrum. "No! It's mine! It's mine!" He panted with agitation for several seconds. "Listen, we can work together. I'll be out in a month or two. They can't possibly stop the three of us! With your biceps and my cute-as-the-Dickens chubby cheeks, we can do anything!"

Winter stared him down. "We'll consider it. In the meantime, we were wondering about something else. You've heard about the General Hospital, I assume."

Gideon shuddered with disgust. "I hear whispers. Hmm... if you'll leave the shack – and Mabel – alone, I'll give you a ghost tip: I know for a fact the _good doctor_ was secretly buried in the cemetery in Gravity Falls. Not too far from a lot of his victims, either. They say he haunts the place." He paused to glare at a ladybug crawling up the arm of his orange jumper. "It's almost ironic. You've no idea the amount of hush money I've gotten to keep that little tidbit quiet." As he snickered, a car pulled in and distracted him. "Daddy's here, so I'm afraid I must be off. It was such a... pleasure meeting you both. Bye for now!"

They didn't return his goodbye and walked straight back to their car. Once inside, they watched the camera crew get set up. "Now we _know_ something's in the Mystery Shack," Winter sighed.

"True. And we have a new place to visit." Summer buckled up with a smile – and then lost her chipper mood. "Hrng. I didn't like being mean, even if it was an act. I'd never hurt them. You know that, right?"

Winter squeezed her hand. "Of course. I wouldn't either."

"We've come such a long way." They pondered the cheerful, puffy clouds in silence. "...but we still have a long way to go. Then again, I read something about how even long journeys begin with a single step."

The blue-eyed woman cocked a brow. "You read?"

"Sure. You like it so much, I started doing it too." Now the smiles were back. "I think we're bonding."

"Mm. I suppose our vacation isn't a total loss after all." She smirked as Summer began to drive back to town. "Let's see what Mabel and Dipper say about tagging along."

"We're going there now?"

"No, I don't want all of Gravity Falls snooping. We'll wait until nightfall." She drew her phone, dialed and put it on speaker.

"Mystery Shack!" Mabel greeted loudly. "Pay for six eyeballs and the seventh is free!"

The twins groaned with disgust. "It's us," Summer advised. "You're open on Saturday?"

"We sure are! It's our biggest 'volume day', whatever that means. I don't think it's any louder than any other day, but what do I know? I'm too busy being awesome. What's up?"

"Summer and I are going to pay a visit to the cemetery tonight. Are you two interested?"

"Hrm. Why? No, wait, the reason's gonna make me sad, isn't it."

Winter's shoulders slumped a bit. "It is about that, yes."

"Nope! Nope, nope, heck nope. I ain't talking to anyone about that anymore, dead or alive. Forget it. Don't wanna, not happening, good night and good luck, sisters." Dipper was barely audible in the background. "They're going to the graveyard, bro. Yeah, it's about _that_. I'm not going. Are you?" There was a pause. "He's not going if I'm not. Sorry."

"It's all right, I understand. We can handle it alone." Her blue eyes widened. "While I've got you... I should confess. We can't actually talk to ghosts."

"Y'all are fakin' it?! Hold on." Some odd sounds came next, including a muffled conversation between the Pines.

Dipper spoke next, and his words were stern. "You told us you've always heard the voices of the dead. Which is it?"

"Oh, we do!" Summer assured him. "But, um... it's complicated. And it..." Her voice began to break. "It hurts."

His wince was almost audible. "Okay okay no no wait, wait, don't cry! You can explain later. Or not. You don't have to. But thanks for being honest. Are you all right?"

"I'm fine," she lied, wiping her eyes to see the road. Winter looked just as forlorn, though she managed to stave off tears.

"Good, good. Sorry. Listen, we're still burnt out about the—the stuff. I didn't mean to sound snippy."

"It's all right," Winter assured him again. "We'll tell you what we learned tomorrow, if you want."

"Uh, maybe. I gotta go, Stan's giving me that 'I want to draw angrily on your face with permanent marker' look again. Later."

"Okay. Goodbye." The second she hung up, Summer began to sob. "Pull over before you hurt someone, please."

She obeyed, having just enough sense left to make it to the shoulder and put the car in park before her emotions came apart. "It's always there!" she screamed, crumpling in half until her head rested on the wheel. "Always in the back of my mind! My brain is _never_ quiet!"

"Neither is mine," was all Winter had to offer. Her eyes were squeezed shut.

"And then it says it's sorry and it's not my fault... it tries to help me feel better." She gasped for air, only to spend the breaths on more bitter weeping. "How do you deal with it? You never cry."

Oh how she tried to keep calm, but the sadness poured forth anyway. "I don't cry as loudly, no," she joked weakly, trying in vain to deflect her anguish. "I've accepted what I've become. That doesn't mean I accept what those two _did_ to me."

"If I hadn't... if..." Summer fell back in the seat and stared ahead. "We survived being lost. Everything else..."

"Is _their_ fault? That's how I feel."

An icy silence fell for several moments. Summer placed a hand on her stomach and started to rub. "Sometimes I wonder if this stuff is the only thing keeping me sane."

"Maybe so. We have enough to battle with, don't you think? Don't fight something that's always been a part of you."

Summer looked over and blinked; Winter was just as much a red-faced wreck as she, and yet there was a tiny smile on her face. "What?"

She turned away and stared out the side window. "There was a time I hated it too. It just wants to help you. Let it."

"I..." While the tears had stopped flowing, the space they left was quickly filled by a cold lump of sadness. Soon, that became disgust. "They really did do this to us. I think understand why you hate them."

"Mm. Look on the bright side, though."

"What bright side?!"

Winter turned back, staring her directly in the eyes. "At least we're no longer suffering through it alone."


	12. Infamy

Her frown persisted even as the sun began to retreat over the cliffs and trees. Mulling was something Winter did a lot, but her sister never was the type to hold it in for so long. "Are you sure you're all right?" she finally asked.

Summer, on the other end of the sofa, just shrugged. "I'm feeling thoughtful, is all."

"What are you thinking about?"

"It keeps... I..." She swallowed her thoughts in hopes of spitting up something coherent. "I only want three things. Two of them I know I can never have, and I've come to terms with those. But I'm surrounded by the third and it drives me crazy sometimes."

Winter had a good guess, but checked anyway. "What's the third?"

"To be normal."

"Oh." She slumped over until her arms were on her thighs. "I've been there."

Summer dabbed at her eyes again and sighed. "I almost feel ashamed. I should be happy with what I have. I have you. I have a _few_ friends."

"It's human nature," Winter replied, leaning up just enough to look. "To want what you can't have."

"Human nature," she scoffed, folding her arms. "Sister, we're not even _close_ to human."

"I think we're getting closer every day, don't you?"

A staring contest took place, one that Summer quickly lost. "Good one. Which one of us is the optimist, again?" she asked with a grin.

Winter smirked right back. "I have my moments. Now then... what about the graveyard?"

She straightened up with a blank face. "Oh, right. Could it be a trap?"

"Even if it is, I think we can handle it. Maybe we're being sent on a wild goose chase."

Summer rubbed her chin. "I don't know, he certainly acted like he was telling the truth. Unless he _was_ acting."

"It can't hurt to look regardless." Winter peered through a window at the evening sky. "At least... I suppose."

"It's fine. I could use the fresh air." With an obnoxious stretch of her arms, she rose from the couch and wandered into the kitchen.

Winter did the same, but a knock interrupted her before she could stand. "Hmm?" She expected another visitor asking for spiritual advice – a few had shown up throughout the afternoon – and put on her polite face.

That wasn't what she got. Soos and Wendy were behind the door, with the former looking much, much happier to be there. "'Sup dudes," he greeted. "We still goin' to the cemetery?"

She cocked a brow in confusion. "Summer and I are, but what are you doing here?"

"Dipper and Mabel asked us to come along! They were feelin' kinda bad about telling you no, so they asked us instead. We totally volunteered."

"No," Wendy objected. "No, we did not volunteer. I didn't. I got begged into oblivion, _that's_ how I got here."

Soos tsk'd a few times, patting her on the back. "Aw, dude, hambone's right. You gotta face your fears, otherwise they'll control you."

"I have a right to be afraid of stuff like this!"

Summer popped up beside her sister and blinked. "Oh, this is who you were talking to. Hello!"

Winter leaned on the door frame to give her sister space to stand. "Apparently they're going to come with us tonight."

"They are?" She drew back at Wendy's helpless look. "I thought you didn't like ghosts."

She rubbed her face and groaned. "I don't, but good luck explaining that to Mabel."

"Yeah! Super Mystery Brothers!" Soos cheered, though it cut off abruptly as he looked around. "I mean... Super Mystery Sisters and a Bro. Sorry. Don't wanna sound sexist."

"It's all right." Winter looked past them at his truck. "Whose car shall we take?"

Wendy suddenly looked hopeful. "Could we take yours? Never ridden in a Bimmer before."

"You drive, sister," Summer said while departing to get her shoes.

She got a sigh fired at her back in response. "Fine."

The redhead managed a small smile. "Sweet. I hope this isn't my _last_ ride."

They all piled into the red sedan. Since there were vulnerable passengers along for the ride, Winter drove with more care than usual. "This is great, right? We haven't gotten a chance to hang out." Soos fought with the seat belt for a few seconds. "Hey, uh... can you change stuff into food? I forgot my post-lunch snack today. Tummy's seriously rumbling."

"We can, but we're not going to," Winter advised firmly.

"U-understood, ma'am."

Wendy snuggled into the leather and sighed happily. Of course, she lost her smile after remembering where she was headed. "So what are we lookin' for, anyway?"

"I'm sure we'll know when we find it!" Summer chirped with a grin.

Soos bobbed his head along with the music. "Hey, playin' by ear! I like it. Last time I played by ear Mister Pines almost punched me, though." The redhead quietly sighed. "Aw, he didn't mean to. Sometimes his hand just accidentally runs into things for some reason, like my turntables."

"Yeah, man. Yeah."

The twins exchanged a few silent words and frowned. "If something happens, I guess we'll be doing the fighting," Winter murmured.

Summer glanced back and shrugged. "I don't know, Wendy seems like she can defend herself fine."

Wendy poked her head between the front seats. "What did you say?"

"Nothing, just deciding what to have for dinner when we get back!" Her smile was too big to be genuine, but the redhead seemed to buy it and withdrew.

Soos's eyes lit up like a Christmas tree. "Dude! Hot dogs! Hamburgers. Uh... hotburgers. There are hotburgers, right?"

Winter let out a long, low breath and decided to stick to driving. It was a fairly muggy evening, but many people were walking around as they made their way through Gravity Falls. Many of them waved to the twins. Summer took great pleasure in waving back, but her sister was too annoyed with the inane conversation coming from the rear seats – most of which was Soos.

"Dude, I heard there's a fair in Iowa where everything's made of butter. Like, they had a statue of a stick of butter _made_ of sticks of butter! Heh! Heh, I'd love to see it one day."

"You, uh, you sure love butter, man," Wendy observed, a little grossed out. "I mean, almost as much as Thompson – and wow, I never thought I'd say that. Hey, you're from Iowa, aren't ya? You guys ever been to the butter... thing?"

"No," Winter replied simply. To her relief, the navigation indicated that only one more left turn stood between her and the cemetery. "We're here." She parked along the sidewalk and stared at it, looming across the street. There were very few lights. "I suppose nobody will bother us if they can't see."

Summer was already halfway out of the car. "I've got flashlights."

They passed through the wrought iron gate and entered a haphazard field of headstones and monuments of all kinds. While the twins secretly used their sixth sense to check for anything out of the ordinary, Soos and Wendy lead the way with Summer's flashlights in hand. The air was so quiet and solemn here, Gravity Falls seemed to exist on another plane behind them.

"Heh, look at the sky," Wendy blurted out, desperate to fill the silence with _something_. Three large, but narrow clouds, made purple by the encroaching night, clawed paths through the red and vermillion sky. "Man. That's nice."

"Mm." Winter's eyes were elsewhere. "Nothing yet. What about you?" Summer shook her head quietly.

"What are we lookin' for again?" Soos asked, sweeping the beam around. "All I see is creepy."

"I told you, we'll know when we..." Summer fell silent as she realized what she was looking at. There was a large gap in the headstones, one that encompassed nearly the entire right rear corner of the cemetery. "What's over there?" She turned Wendy that way. "Light please."

"Huh?" The glow revealed a grassy, empty spot, unmarred by headstones or plaques. "Oh yeah. I saw that when we buried mom, but dad wouldn't tell me what it was about." Her face became pallid. "I... I got a bad feeling about this."

Soos was unperturbed. "What's the worst that could happen?" he joked, leading them in its direction.

Wendy smacked his arm. "Don't even!"

However, nothing ill occurred as the four entered the empty space. The twins were tense, ready to strike. Wendy's demeanor wasn't much different. Soos was, as always, himself. "Doesn't seem like good space management," he chided. "Someone oughta complain."

"Hmm." Winter split away from them and started to wander, eyes to the grass.

"Mabel told us you were lying about talking to ghosts."

She stopped mid-step and turned to regard Wendy. Faint anger joined anxiety on the redhead's face. An awkward looking Soos was at her side; Summer moved to be with her sister in turn. A mild standoff was underway. "She was right."

The redhead's eyes shone with disdain. "So, what? Did you lie to us too?" she demanded.

"No."

"You can't have it both ways!" Wendy stormed over to them. "You either lied about lying or you lied to my dad! And if you lied to him I swear..."

Neither woman even bothered to flinch. "The power that allows us to do this," Winter began, snapping Wendy's flashlight into a lantern which she dropped in shock, "was following him around at the party. And not just him. We heard it say goodbye. Was it a ghost? I suppose not. Did we lie about what it was doing? No." She moved closer and put a hand on the redhead's shoulder. "The journal is only part of the story. We're looking for the rest."

"Well, this is tense," Summer sighed. "Come to think of it, I wouldn't be surprised if their spirits were using magic to make themselves heard. No wonder everyone was so happy."

Soos was beginning to brainstorm. "Whoa whoa wait. If there was magic in the hospital, where'd it come from? Were the babies magical? Dude... does Wendy have magical relatives? Do I?! _Are we all going to Hogwarts_?!"

"That's what we're trying to find out," Winter replied, brow raised at his outburst. She restored the flashlight and offered it to Wendy again. "Doesn't seem like there's anything here, though."

Wendy turned it over in her hands several times. "H-how did you—this is insane."

"Hold on." Summer, hand raised, was peering around. "I heard a whisper."

The tension returned. All four of them closed into a group, back to back while straining to hear. Most of the sound was their own breathing. "I thought I killed them all?" Wendy suddenly muttered. "Who...?"

"Dudes? Maybe we should call it a day?" Soos begged, hunched over and trembling.

The twins broke away, walking toward the corner. Wendy and Soos elected to stay where they were. "Killed all of who?" Winter whispered. The closer they got, the colder the air became.

"I don't hear it anymore," the redhead called. "I think we're good."

"It's following us!" Summer called back. "It feels like there's something over here in the corner!"

A minor disagreement about giving chase broke out between Wendy and Soos, but the twins kept walking and paid it no attention. In a few seconds more, the temperature had dropped so much their breaths came out in little clouds. "I doubt this is normal," Winter murmured.

Summer nodded her agreement. "No kidding. Come out, whoever you are."

The others came up alongside them, still bickering, just as a humanoid shape faded into view against the fence. "I cannot believe this," it said. Its voice was distinctly male, bearing an accent that neither woman was familiar with. As they watched it twisted and bent into a balding, thin old man, dressed in a sharp ensemble with a double-breasted jacket and pressed slacks. Round glasses sat on his face. His flesh and the fabric displayed the same faded grayish color – at points it was hard to tell which was which. "I was certain I got you all—oh." He paused, eying the twins for a moment. "Forgive me, you're much too young. I thought I felt that dreadful force again."

"'Sup, dude," Soos waved. "Nice suit. Classic style."

He tugged on his collar smartly. "My thanks. I may be deceased, but that's no reason not to look my best, yes?" His gaze traveled past them and to a lopsided marker beside Wendy. He raised a hand and straightened it with an unseen force, causing the redhead to yelp with terror. "Although I wish the residents of Gravity Falls felt the same about their resting places."

Winter, blinking with surprise at his telekinesis, tossed the small talk aside and walked up to the ghost. "Killed all of who?" she asked again.

He didn't answer right away, content instead to glare at her, then at her sister. "I _do_ feel that force. Who are you?"

"We're asking the questions," Summer denied him with a smile. "Could we at least have your name?"

"Very well. I am Wilhelm Seifert. _Doctor_ Wilhelm Seifert."

"Oh no, it's the friggin' baby murderer," Wendy gagged, turning her back on the spirit.

Hands on his lapels, he glared at the teenager in disgust. "I have an unearned reputation, miss. Whatever you've heard of my regrettable actions is a lie. They were of the utmost necessity."

"Like hell! I wish you were solid," she spat at him, "so I could punch you in the face!"

"How dare you!"

"Enough!" Winter bellowed, stepping between them. "Answer my question, please."

"All of the innocent newborns tainted by that awful spark," he replied. "They would have grown up to become like you and the world would have suffered." His voice suddenly grew haughty. "I saved us all, you see. I understand why they had to incarcerate me. I do. Thankfully, I'd kept my work secret long enough for the portal to be closed."

Summer's jaw nearly hit the ground. "Wait. The children were like us? That's why you killed them?"

The doctor abruptly lost all his pride. Bitter remorse took its place. "Yes. It was our fault they suffered," he admitted, head hung. "A date which shall live in infamy indeed. If only the world knew how many more infamous days it spawned." Once more, he eyed the twins. "And yet, here you are, grown up and bearing the power with great dignity." His brow furrowed. "Hmm. What are your names?"

They shared a glance before responding. "I'm Summer Weiss. This is my sister Winter."

He clapped his hands cheerfully. "Weiss! So good to hear a name from my homeland. Were you born this way?"

"Yes," Winter nodded. "Why?"

Wilhelm looked around in thought. "Then the portal must have been opened again. I knew we would find a way to harness its power." Another glance made him smile. "And the world is still here. I'm glad."

Soos tilted his head. "There's a portal?"

"Of course. Didn't you know?"

"No, we're from Iowa," Summer lied, motioning between herself and her sister. "What portal?"

Wilhelm's face grew dark. "You _don't_ know?" Anger filled his eyes. "Hmm. Perhaps someone else has found our research and is using it for their own ends. Well, there are things that no one should ever know. I cannot trust you with those. Leave me in peace." He disappeared in a wispy cloud, taking the cold fog with him. The four of them just stood there for a while and tried to process the conversation.

"...There's a portal now." Wendy threw her hands up and started back toward the gate. "Screw it _all_, man. I give up. I'm gonna say hi to mom while I'm here."

"I'm with her," Soos shrugged. "My, uh, my brain kinda hurts. I'll be at the car."

The twins were thankful to be left alone. "I feel about like Wendy does. There's a portal now," Summer moaned. "I mean, besides the one we used."

Winter slapped her forehead. "Are we dealing with a leak somewhere?"

"Who knows. How could he even feel us?" She peeked down at her hands and frowned.

"I don't know." They could see a flashlight off to their right, laying on the ground beside a headstone. The redhead herself was visible as a dim silhouette kneeling before it. "Let's pay our respects," she said, walking that way.

Their arrival a minute later startled Wendy a bit. It was clear she was decompressing from her ghostly encounter just as much as she was paying a visit to her mother's grave. "Oh, uh, hey. What's up?"

"Nothing." Winter nodded at the marker. "This is your mother, I assume?"

"Oh, yeah." Wendy's eyes glittered with sadness. "Car accident. Not so long ago, but it seems like forever," she sighed, rising from her knees. "It... sucks."

"Yes, I bet." Summer, hands clasped, bowed her head briefly. "Whitney? That's a nice name."

She allowed herself a small smile. "Heh. She won a bet with my dad. If I was a boy, he'd get to give me a name starting with D. If I was a girl, she'd give me a name starting with W." For a moment, they all stared quietly at the marker. "I'm sorry about snappin' at you earlier. I just didn't want to think someone was lying to me. Not about _that_, you know?"

"We understand." Winter's eyes were glued to the headstone, her expression unreadable. "There's something... cathartic about this, isn't there?"

The fancy word made her chuckle. "Cathartic? Glad I paid attention in English class. Yeah, there is." Thinking about why the blue-eyed woman would understand made her heart heavy after a while. "You've been to a funeral too, huh?"

"Kind of," Summer said, just before the tears started to flow. "There were... there were supposed to be..." Unable to continue, she hid her eyes and turned away.

In her stead, Winter attempted to maintain a steely front but lacked the capability. She wiped her eyes. "Quadruplets. We should have been four sisters, not two."

"Oh, man." Wendy plopped her hat back on and gave each woman a tight hug. "Sorry to hear that." Unable to form words without loosing a sob, Summer was limited to an anguished groan. Her sister was absolutely silent. She stepped back to allow them a moment to collect themselves. "Hey, let's change the subject," she encouraged. "What's up with that portal thing?"

"I have no idea," Winter sighed. "This is the first I've heard of it, but it could explain why there's magic here."

Wendy's face twisted with confusion. "It could? Hold up. Where did you guys get your powers, anyway?"

Summer hopped anxiously on her heels. "Like we told him, we were born with them."

"So does that mean there's magic in _Iowa_?"

"Mm. Never underestimate the strangeness of the world around you," Winter advised with a wry smile.

"Yeah, I oughta know better now, huh." She scratched at her ruddy locks and frowned. "And you guys can feel it?"

"Yes. As you can probably guess, being the only ones of your kind helps you detect when you're suddenly not the only ones of your kind," Summer said. Her eyes drifted around the graveyard. "I wonder if any of those babies made it past him... if they did..."

"Whoa." Wendy's eyes bulged with the image of random citizens of Gravity Falls being able to shift things. She looked at her hands and blinked. "Maybe we are going to Hogwarts. Or Dipper was right and you two are mutants. What if we all are? That's freaky."

Winter's brow furrowed in thought. "No kidding. Would you go check on Soos? I'm not sure he won't try to eat Summer's car."

The image made her burst out laughing. "Pfff, no joke. Guy loves his food. Yeah, sure. I'll leave the flash—wait, you can just make one. Man. You guys are nuts." She departed with a wave, shaking her head.

And she did just that, almost literally weaving a new one out of a few blades of grass. "This is a problem. If there's an open hole between our worlds, this one is in trouble. It's not ready for magic." Silence on Summer's end made her turn and look. "What?"

Her eyes were wide. "We're going to have to tell them we're not from Earth, aren't we?"

"Probably," she acknowledged while starting to walk. "We look enough like them to make it palatable. I'm willing to divulge it if I must." A scowl appeared as she briefly shone the flashlight on her palm. "But there are some things we cannot let anyone know."

"Right." Summer turned her thoughts to another matter. "A date which will live in infamy... I wonder what he meant by that?"

* * *

"Why do you think he's haunting you?"

On the twins' sofa was a sniffling, bronze-skinned woman, her brown hair tied back in a simple ponytail. For some reason, she wore a black apron over her clothes. She'd been there for the better part of an hour, having a back-and-forth with Summer. Winter, leaning in the kitchen doorway, was content to lend an ear once in a while, though most of the time her attention was on the laptop in her hand.

"I just feel him!" she sobbed. "I can't explain, it's like... a presence sometimes."

Summer tapped her chin a few times. "Does it _feel_ like he hates you?"

"Well... I don't know. Why wouldn't he? It's my fault he died."

The story tumbled around in her head, forcing a series of various expressions as she tried to pull out the positives. There wasn't much for her to grasp. "I understand he drowned while you were supposed to be watching him, but..."

Their visitor broke down under the weight of those memories. Hunched over and sobbing, her next words were hardly able to escape. "They all hate me... I know they do..."

"We all make mistakes, Nicole." Those words carried so much strength, both Winter and their guest stopped cold to look at her. She blinked at the attention. "Trust us, we know what regret looks like. The next time you sense him nearby, why not ask what he thinks?"

"But I already know what he thinks!"

Summer shook her head gently. "No, you think you know what he thinks. Ask him. If he forgives you, you can forgive you. There's no reason to haul around your anguish forever."

"What if he doesn't?"

She offered a bright smile. "Then give it more time. They're not lying about the 'heals all wounds' business. Even the most bitter emotions will fade."

"R-really?" Hope began to enter Nicole's agonized look. "It hurts so much, though. It's like a cloud I can't see past."

"We know," Winter chimed in, closing and lowering her laptop. "There are two options: you can let it shape you, or you can let it destroy you. That choice is up to you. Don't shy away from making it."

"Wow." Nicole's shoulders slumped. "I needed that."

"There's nothing wrong with a good pep talk," Summer assured. She peeked over at her sister, who nodded at the door. "But it's getting late for us, I'm afraid."

"Oh, yeah, yeah. Sure." Nicole rose and fished in her purse for a moment. Her hand emerged with a crumpled wad of money, which she dropped on the coffee table. "Here. I insist. Thanks for seeing me so late."

"No problem. Goodbye!" Summer waved. After she was gone, Winter took her place on the sofa and opened her laptop again. "I wonder if we're 'mediums' or therapists?"

She replied with a shrug. "I don't see much difference between the two, honestly."

"Fair point." Her breath hitched a few times until the sounds became a sniffle. "I wish I could follow my own advice."

Winter stopped typing and glanced over. "Be patient. We haven't been alive that long."

With a bitter pout, Summer crossed her arms and glared. "...I hate being young beyond my years."

"Mm. We've got a lot of growing to do. I also think we have a right to be proud of our progress." The Wikipedia entry on her screen made her eyes narrow. "Hmm..." For a few silent moments she read.

And in that time her demeanor changed to one that made Summer's hair stand on end. "What?" Her sister was pallid... nervous, almost. It was an emotion she'd never seen her wearing before. "_What_?"

Winter handed the laptop over and sighed. "I'm reading about my worst nightmare. That phrase Seifert mentioned, I searched for it on—whatever it's called. Look at what I found."

"Huh?" Her eyes took in the almost unending text of a condensed history of World War II from its origins to its end. While the places and the names defied her limited knowledge of the world, one part was easy to understand: numbers, breathtaking in scale and horrific in the brutality they insinuated. Millions of lives lost in the span of a few years, killed by means and methods she'd never heard of until now. It was a hole even deeper than the pit, and she lost several minutes chasing related articles, mostly about the weaponry. "Oh my. I..."

Winter nodded solemnly. "I knew the stakes were high, but if this is what full-scale conflict looks like here... an overreaction to our presence could cause incredible damage."

"Why? Do you think they'd be so afraid they'd try to kill us?"

"Seifert seemed convinced of _something_ terrible, I know that much. And I can tell you the guns we're used to seeing look a lot more deadly than the ones in those photos. Not to mention the flying machines." She released a resigned sigh and curled up on the sofa. "We should learn about what modern warfare means here. Know what we'd be up against."

A knot of ice congealed in Summer's stomach. She tried to fight it off with a nervous smile. "No, no. All we have to do is keep our secrets."

"Secrets have a way of becoming un-kept. I'm hoping for the best, but we need to prepare for the _worst_." She summoned the other laptop from the coffee table with her telekinesis and began to hunt. "Are you still reading about the war?"

"Unfortunately." At least the rate at which she consumed information had brought her close to the end. Here she found the way the conflict died, in the brilliant flash of two bombs that changed the course of history forever. "Sister... search for," she paused, unsure how to pronounce the first word, "atomic bombs."

Winter did as asked, clicked the first link, and ended up right back on Wikipedia again. The article she found there introduced her to a new level of disgust. "Whole cities?" she exclaimed. "At once?!"

"I wonder if this is what he meant by saving the world. Would they... no, I don't even need to ask. They've _already_ used them on each other." She trembled with anguish. "Shadows imprinted against the walls. Melting eyes. I can't handle—I can't." She finally broke, shutting the laptop and wincing.

"We obviously can't let something like that happen." Emotion forced Winter to her feet, where she paced circles around the couch. "Then again... we know the lengths people will go to in order to keep something quiet. There could be danger."

"They can't hurt us. I'm more worried about Gravity Falls."

Her icy eyes grew somber. "Exactly what I was thinking."

"What do we do now?" Summer asked, tracking her orbit. "If we stop looking, the magic might spread and start a war. If we press on, we might accidentally do the same."

Winter froze in her tracks. "I want to know if there were survivors. I would—I would like very much to meet them, but I can't get an answer until I know how this got here." Her face softened when Summer rose, walked over, and took her by the hands.

"Then we keep looking," she asserted with a smile. "If I'm reading things right, the whole country played a part in the conflict. Maybe Gravity Falls' role in that effort is a good place to start."


End file.
